Mega Man X.5
by tremor3258
Summary: There are always prototypes: so what happened to X's and Zero's? First story arc is now finished!
1. Prototypes

Megman X.5  
  


by Tremor3258  
  


Disclaimer: I don't own Megaman, either version. Capcom does! Lucky guys, them.

This is a slightly revised version, with a few minor mistakes corrected.  
  


In which our characters show up, meet, and then the part ends!  
  


"Well, Bass, what do you think of your 'sister'?" The black war-android stared in the frank admiration he figured Dr. Wiley wanted. King had been defeated, and Wiley was busy putting together his most prized creation, a robot who would be able to make its own decisions, and equipped with advanced weapons and armor. Frankly, Rock came close to true intelligence, but Zero could adapt far faster than Megaman ever would. But that project was on the back burner for now, all that was left was the carefully delicate programming to set Zero on his merry destructive way.  
  


Wiley had one of his rare good days after the fight with King, and heard Bass's report on what Protoman had said. So, Wiley had decided to give his prize robot something to fight for, and defend. Thus, a sister. Besides, Wiley hated having to clean up after himself. Still, she would make a good last line of defense. Slightly longer than shoulder length black hair could be bound underneath an orange helmet, Wiley was in an orange phase, and so Jazz was currently armored in light peaches and oranges, resembling an older teenager rather than the younger child-like appearance taken by many of the bad Doctor's creations. Rather than armed with a standard plasma buster for most general style robots, she was equipped with a homing missile system in her shoulders.  
  


Nearby, an orange and brown lean tiger lolled, Rhythm, a support unit for the new girl-style Mech. Still, the programming download should be complete, having forcefed enough of a basic education to start a personality matrix, if Wiley's copies of the Artificial Intelligence design was correct. Best to check out the circuits on a lightly armored body rather than the pinnacle that was to be Zero.   
  


Suddenly, she awoke, and twitched around, stuck in a fluid bath as the programming was downloaded. Wiley was surprised, she shouldn't have woken up yet! Was there an error? He couldn't just deactivate her, because of the care in crafting Bass's subroutines to protect her. And now the dumb cat was whining, and soon Treble was going to wander in...  
  


"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" roared Wiley. Jazz froze in her tank as everyone else, following preprogrammed routines, froze in place. Wiley held his head in his hands, "Why am I surrounded by such fools?" No one answered the rhetorical question, and Wiley quickly drained the tank. Jazz stood there, looking blankly. Wiley groaned, "Right, need to get you over and get some more information in to you. Right now, you're not much more help than a Met," referring to the little yellow helmets. Wiley thought, he wasn't at his main base right now, he was still rebuilding it from last time, and they were rather close to Dr. Light's lab in order to put his latest scheme in operation so, "Rhythm, take Jazz to Central Park and let her soak up some atmosphere, after Jazz gets into something a little less military. Might as well test her infiltration subroutines." The cat nodded, not equipped with a vocalizer, and grabbed Jazz by the hand, blankly letting herself be taken away.  
  


Meanwhile, in a little better lit lab on the outskirts of New York City, Doctor Light was working on his newest invention. Dr. Light was seeing if he could get lightning to strike again, as work on X continued, the robot already placed into its capsule back at his main Tokyo lab. X had no limits planned on his behavior, and so could potentially be very dangerous. Still, this robot was a test bed module, to decide if Light was to go ahead with final activation of X. Equipped with 'watered-down' versions of X's advanced new systems, and without a set of capsules lying around just in case, but with a support armor system, Staff, black with red trim. Bebop's systems could theoretically reach true artificial intelligence, but for now, was held in the bounds of the laws of robotics, at least, theoretically. For now, he served as a useful testbed for the new neural networks. Rock definitely didn't need the help, and some of these systems could be dangerous. He was armed with a new model buster, based on the old Gemini laser, currently without charging but fired a particle stream in the laser's core, making it extremely potent.   
  


Roll and Rock were in the room, and Dr. Light assumed Blues was hanging around in the area. He had recently come in for a shield upgrade, and Light had mentioned Bebop's activation coming up. Blues had been interested, if only since he had another Bomber to try and keep safe, as he had mentioned at the time. "All right, are we ready to throw the switch?" Megaman took that moment to switch into his armor from his casual clothes, and Roll held up a large sledgehammer. The duo nodded.  
  


"Oh, for goodness sakes! Will you put those down, the last thing we want is to drive him into a nervous breakdown a few seconds after activation." The two stored the weapons away quickly. Rock had recently given up one of his weapon sets due to yet another Mega Buster upgrade, and the old data sets didn't work. But, it kept him current with whatever Wiley was planning, as he was on the run, again.   
  


Light threw the switch, and even though he hadn't a problem with an activation for years, he took a step back. The green robot with light gray trim opened its eyes and sat up, blinking. "Good morning, Bebop. I am your creator, Doctor Light. These are Rock and Roll, your 'siblings' as it were." Bebop was based on the X design, and was a bit taller.  
  


Bebop turned over and bowed slightly to both of them. Light watched critically. This design was new, it was possible that a cascade error could start any moment and wipe out the robot. The limiters put in were tricky. Bebop looked down at his heavily armored body, and then looked at the other two, and said in a puzzled tone, "What exactly is my function, Dr. Light? I am not to kill, and yet..."   
  


Dr. Light nodded grimly, "An unfortunate fact of our times. The Earth often faces attacks from various sources, and no human is strong enough to withstand them. Rock was rebuilt to protect the Earth, and I have felt that it is time for him to have assistance." Bebop stared in frank astonishment at the four foot Blue Bomber, who was wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt. Megaman summoned his armor with a moment's thought, and displayed his mighty Mega Buster. Bebop nodded once, uncertainly.  
  


Light said, "You two need a little chance to get to know one another. For that matter, you should meet your support unit," Light pressed a button, and a lynx-like creature, resembling a modified and slightly bulkier Tango, walked out. "This is Staff, he can provide a number of useful functions, such as transport and combat armor."  
  


"Cool!" Bebop said with a grin, scratching the cat's face, who purred. Dr. Light blinked, but decided it was a reaction similar to getting a new toy, or watching Rock blow up the latest eight Robot Masters. "Hmm, Rock, Roll, take Rush out with these two and get acquainted. You can even run him through a few low level drills."  
  


The two older robots plus robodog started off immediately. Bebop paused, "Um, Doctor, won't I be conspicuous?" Dr. Light nearly gagged on the pipe he was filling. Definite signs of initiative! Not to mention good integration of data!   
  


The good doctor smiled paternally, "Yes, of course. Catch up with Roll, and she should have bought some clothes in your size. You should be able to warp in and out of your armor." Bebop nodded and walked off.   
  


Well, thought the researcher, it looks good so far, and I trust Rock and Roll's instincts for keeping things out of danger. Next, try and discover a healthy form of tabacco, or give up this nasty habit. Light grinned, or maybe Wiley would give things up, settle down, and find a nice padded cell.   
  


Central Park, even in this time period, a nice place to relax. Meanwhile, a seemingly blind teeanger was being led around by a robotic cat. That was unusual, but not extremely so in New York. Robopets had been a fad a few years back. Suddenly, with a twitch, which corresponded to Wiley's preplanned activation time, the girl seemed to focus in. Jazz leaned down and whispered, "Thanks Jazz, I feel a lot better being out of there." Jazz meowed back in reply. Her setup was simple, follow her mistress's commands, and try and cause as much destruction as possible. Time in the sun was merely a bonus.  
  


Jazz felt strange as she wandered over onto a bench. She had seen things she shouldn't have. Wiley had spent several days hooked up to data banks allowing her to browse in a dream state, so that she awoke ready to function. "Father isn't feeling well, something's wrong." It was a discontinuity in her program, one she didn't feel able to resolve yet. She was supposed to obey, but she was unable to question. Which was the greater prerogative? With the Doctor's aging health, the shock of being confronted could kill him. And then, if she did something that was perceived as disloyal, she could be destroyed, where the third law of robotics prevented. "I'm very confused." Rhythm meowed, such thoughts were too much for its processors.   
  


Meanwhile, Roll was extremely happy about the day out, away from the lab and maintaining the various systems. Rock was only slightly less enthusiastic, followed by Rush, Beat, and Tango. Plus, he figured Blues might show up, which was always at least interesting. Bebop followed behind slower, unsure of what exactly to do. Rock didn't seem to mind the switch to war machine, but it was distressing to have a set of commandments burned into your system to do no harm and enough firepower to take on a small city. Bebop had followed the same startup procedures as Jazz, since Wiley had copied Light's designs, and found himself busy watching the people.  
  


And, due to Plot Cliche #12, Bebop found himself sitting down next to Jazz on a bench in the park, watching the people go about their business, though they didn't notice each other at first, until Rhythm and Staff got into a literal catfight at perceived attacks on their territory. "Ack! C'mon, stop that! I'm supposed to keep a low profile!" said the two at once, before chuckling at each other nervously. The two cats broke off under their owner and companion's voices.   
  


"Sorry!" said Jazz, thinking do not do anything that would get Mega man to kill you, "she's usually better behaved than that, I hope" the robot finished icily. Rhythm had the presence of mind to look chagrined.   
  


"Right! I mean, I wouldn't want you, or your cat, to get damaged in any way. It's not really right," said Bebop, keeping a glare pinned on the helpless robocat.   
  


"Yeah, I suppose that's just an easy definition of 'right'," huffed Jazz, reminded of her quandry.   
  


Bebop nodded sympathetically, "Yeah, I've had a problem I've been working on for a few days as well, been having nightmares because of it." Which was basically correct.   
  


"You too?" Jazz said softly, "It's not easy. I mean, I'm feeling hemmed in, and I can't grow at all. Bizarre restrictions all over the place, how can I do any good?"  
  


Bebop looked at Jazz in surprise, "You too? Are you reading my central proc- my mind?" Bebop caught the idiom with a cough. "Sorry, too long in front of a computer."   
  


Jazz wasn't a mere robot, though, and nervous already and brought up a scanning feature, which easily picked up the various systems, like steel frame, that clothes and realistic skin couldn't hide. Jazz froze, I've found a person just like me, and he's working for the opposite side.  
  


Bebop's systems detected the scan, with a few warning lights and pinpointed it back to Jazz, who's eyes, usually brown, seemed to have a slight blue tint due to the scanning systems. Bebop raised his hand, and made his first real choice, "Don't say it. We didn't notice anything okay?"   
  


Jazz froze up for a moment, feeling sudden destructive urges, before she deleted them, hoping it was a program fault she caught in time, "Got it!" she said cheerfully, and then in a more serious tone, "That goes for you as well, Rhythm." The cat meowed, seeming a little drowsy, but probably ready to pounce on Staff.  
  


"Rhythm? Hmm, I see that my father wasn't the only uncreative one. Meet Staff," the boy, well, basically, gestured to the cat, and said, "I'm Bebop, and I don't have your name."  
  


She put her hands up behind her head so her elbows could shield a little of the embarrassment, say what you will, Wiley didn't do a bad job on his robots, and said, "I'm Jazz. You know, the four of us could probably start a band." Bebop smirked, and then lunged as Staff went for Rhythm again.  
  


Meanwhile, Bass, wearing off-duty style clothes, was wandering around with Treble, looking for Jazz, figuring she should have broken all hell loose by now. Then, he caught with a sudden gleam in his eye, Megaman who was coming in the direction looking to get Bebop over to the picnic. Then the two spotted each other, and the fight was on, both going to adapter modes quickly and laying in with everything they could, as was practically a tradition for the two now.  
  


Explosions rocked the park. The two stood up instantly, a good portion of their 'startup' programming dedicated to these situations in their trying times. The two paused, and deliberately looked away from each other as the two brought forth their battle armor, running in opposite directions to give some time. "Come on, Staff, we should find out what's up. And more about Jazz, it's good to have a friend," and Bebop smiled, as he found something in his directives that wasn't related to destruction.  
  


Meanwhile, several innocent trees, and a rather guilty looking bush, had paid the consequences for the Super-Adapter's day out. The two had taken several hits which were slowing them down a bit, but they didn't see any sign of stopping. Meanwhile, our author created characters had wandered up and were at a loss for proper attacking. The two combatants did pick up the beacons of the other robots  
  


"Hah!" said Rock in glee, "Now that Bebop's here, you're ours at last Bass!"   
  


Bass countered, "Oh yeah, with Jazz- oh, wait. Here you are Jazz. I'm supposed to bring you back home. Bye, Mega, kill you next time." With that, the two teleported out.  
  


"What an odd day," commented Megaman as he separated from Rush.  
  


"Brother, you have no idea what kind of understatement you just made," said Bebop empthatically.   
  


Author's notes: I needed to get things moving, and I moved quickly here. My excuse: the innocence of basically fully capable beings suddenly thrust into war (X was a pacifist too, even after Mavericks appeared until after the Hunter attack).   
  



	2. Do you want to save...

Do you want to save before you quit?

  
  


by Tremor3258

  
  


Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Megaman. Capcom does, though.

  
  


"Eep!" shrieked Jazz as she went flying through the air, landing against the side of Wiley's latest Skull Fortress's training room. It was several months later, and Bass was busy showing why he was the best Wiley had. Despite what you loaded into a robot's processors, if it was to be able to really fight, it needed experience, especially the more advanced, pseudo and near AIs like Bass and Jazz, respectively. 

  
  


Bass was busy using his super adapter to 'take sis to school'. Jazz grunted, and focused momentarily. Skimming energy from her fusion generator, and dumping it into a set of matter synthesizers, Jazz launched her boosted shot. Both hands retracted and panels slid back from the shoulders as four homing missiles launched. Laughing, Bass fired one of his energy bolts, slamming through the missiles and obscuring the field with smoke from explosions. Still laughing, Bass was pitched forward as the fourth missile he had missed swooped around and exploded on his back. With a grunt, Bass and Treble separated. Jazz stood up cautiously, "I've been upgrading the AI routines in my missiles for improved homing, what do you think?" 

  
  


Bass, to his credit, was already back on his feet, only slightly shaken up, "You still have a ways to go! You should have finished me off!" Bass launched an energy bolt knocking her over, and sending her systems into a simulated stasis from the quarter-power bolt. 

  
  


Jazz locked up, unable to move yet again. If he spouts that 'he who hesitates...' line at me one more time, I'm coming after him in his next maintenance cycle, the female robot vowed. Before Bass got a chance, Wiley deactivated the training room and brought up the lights. Jazz stood up as Bass automatically went to attention. 

  
  


Wiley examined his two prize creations. Jazz had improved greatly, and if she had been allowed to use her adapter with Rhythm, she may have won against Bass. Against an experienced killer like Bass, that was massive scales of improvement. The learning curve in her design was something Wiley hadn't thought possible. Truly, her circuits impressed even Wiley, who believed he had exceeded Light's planned design. Of course, Wiley didn't realize the frustration his design was under, designed for combat and limited in its use, as Wiley hadn't let her use her mega adapter mode yet.

  
  


Wiley pondered for a moment over the situation, ignoring a growing headache, and noticed Jazz's apparent stress level, and said, "Jazz, you can head off to the park for a few hours." Jazz brightened and rushed out of the room, probably so that Wiley wouldn't get a chance to change his mind. Wiley nodded, and thought, Good, I'm not quite sure what will happen if she finds out about Zero. The last thing I need is a berserk robot, well, one in the lab. I'd like to see Megaman dealing with a berserk robot. Wiley cackled madly before heading back to continue his work.

  
  


Roll had dropped Bebop at the park a little while earlier, since his training was done a little early as Protoman had shown up, and managed to take both of them out rather easily. Bebop tossed rocks at the pond, keeping the number of skips down so that he wouldn't attract attention. Frankly, Bebop would be happy to get away from the fighting, and the attention that Rock tended to attract if he went out with his armor, for whatever purpose. 

  
  


Bebop had asked, carefully, since Light had seemed to be more interested in a fighting machine with this generation, about the malaise he suffered. Light had explained his circuit designs were based for Light's super-robot, still under construction, that was intended to be able to seek peaceful as well as combatant purposes. And Light wanted a warrior, and didn't realize he forced a choice on me, thought the robot sadly, who scratched Staff behind his ears. Staff was pretty much happy as long as he was kept recharged and busy. "I envy the simple life," said Bebop aloud. 

  
  


"Oh, really, then why do you keep talking to me?" said a playful voice behind him, who wrapped her hands around his eyes. Bebop yelped in surprise, before Jazz jumped over the bench, and landed lightly. If you could listen closely, you could hear the hydraulics. Jazz frowned, tapping her legs, "Hmm, sounds a little off. I'll run a diagonistic on me later." 

  
  


Bebop grinned, and crossed his arms before saying, "Okay, something's wrong. You're mentioning tiny system faults again, which means you think you're doing something wrong and you're trying to shift blame." Jazz blushed slightly. The two had been talking for quite some time in destinations like the park, and had managed to keep it private. The two knew each other very well by now, and had picked up some traits. Jazz had gotten a lot more interested in robotics because of Bebop's interest in learning more about himself, and Bebop had become a wizard at hand-to-hand. 

  
  


Still, Jazz reflected, you could see the fundamental differences. They both felt constrained, but Jazz was programmed more for war, and felt the shackles binding her down. Bebop wanted to taste opportunities, and felt the shackles binding him to fighting. Still, that left them very much the same, two frustrated warriors. Jazz shook herself as she realized Bebop was still waiting for an answer.

  
  


"Okay, ready for a rant?" Bebop took a deep breath and braced himself. Jazz giggled and started off, "Well, I was in training again today, and, my opponent," even now, they kept up the fiction of that they didn't know who each other's creators were, "got to use a flight armor against me, and I'm still now allowed to use mine in even practice combat. What is his problem, anyway?" demanded Jazz, "Seriously, I'm starting to think about trashing the place and running, but I doubt that your head honcho would take me in very easily." Bebop nodded uneasily, Wiley had included some serious anti-reprogramming blocks in the later generations of his machines, so Light probably wouldn't consider taking in a robot and attempting to reprogram it. That, and the idea of wiping the mind of his friend made him feel nauseous. 

  
  


Bebop sighed, scratched Staff absently, before realizing what his hand was on. "Hey, wait a minute! I've actually found something I can help you on!" Jazz blinked, and then stared at the two support units, and started to grin. Bebop raised a finger to make a point, and said, "That's right, Jazz, I've got my armor available from warp. Up for a little midair sparring?"

  
  


Jazz nodded, saying, "It'll be different. Let's find a quieter area, though, then right on the path. Unless you want to find our brothers showing up and way more questions than we want to answer." Bebop nodded and the two headed off the trail.

  
  


The two managed to find a quiet clearing, and quickly shifted into their armor, which was the only way to activate the adapters. Jazz nodded, and said, "We'll have to keep it low, so no one sees. And be sure to drop your power down. I'll be launching smoke warheads, and I've heard about your death ray!" 

  
  


Bebop simply pointed his right arm at a tree, morphed the arm into a cannon and shot a green beam, all low-level light, no particle stream. The tree probably photosynthesized a little better, but that was the only effect. Then Bebop paused, "Smoke warheads?" Jazz grinned, he hadn't seen the weapon system yet. Bebop dropped her hand back to form a launcher, and fired a small sputtering missile off an old design from her synthesizers. It fell down halfway in between and disintegrated. Bebop was impressed from his designer's viewpoint, "Wow, so your systems draw in matter from the surrounding environment and turn it into missiles? That's a really advanced system. So did you get the mark of all humanoid robots, the variable weapon system?" 

Jazz grinned, "Oh yes, lose and we'll just see what happens, oh friend of mine." Jazz shot off a charged strike of four homing missiles, the green and black team opposite her fled for cover as they exploded around, sending up oily clumps of smoke. Jazz said, "Not to mention a charging system for said weapons, how about you!" Bebop's response was to pop out from behind the bush and release a blue, larger light blast. It was set to do no damage, but Jazz raised her hands to block in panic as it washed over her. Bebop made a large show of blowing heat waves away from the top of his blaster.

  
  


"Okay, are we done playing now," Jazz grumbled, angry at being tagged. Jazz nodded to her pet, and her armor switched from light orange and red to brown with orange in the lighter sections at arms and leg sections where armor was lighter for mobility. Rhythm jumped on, and latched over. Part of each cat head was on each shoulder, and the main body formed a thruster pack on the back. Hands and feet were covered with claws. Jazz purred in delight, unable to resist, "And I thought Rhythm's jet mode was nice." Bebop sent a command over the radio to his auxiliary, and by an unfortunate by product of the circuit product, his armor changed colors, going from soft greens and grey to the black and green of his pet. The mode was similar to Jazz's, with claws over gloves and boots, but compared to the simple jetpack type, Staff's body formed out two wing-like projections for maneuverability, and two extra beam projectors were at waist level. 

  
  


A slight buildup of capacitor noise could be heard around both of them as they charged their systems, assisted by the power packs and equipment of their combined helper animals. At the same time, both charges, which reached higher than normal levels, finished. Bebop started off by unleashing four purple light beams that focused together into one wave that, at full power, caused massive destruction. Jazz responded with twice as many of her usual charged assortment of missiles, with extra launch points on the 'backpack' style structure for her thrusters. And so the fight was on.

  
  


Meanwhile, back at Skull Fortress mark Eight? Nine? Wiley had lost count a while ago, especially with his headaches. His final plans were about ready. An orange-armored beast of utter destruction. One that would take out Light's lab, and anyone who got in his way. Not to mention he was planning to equip his titan with a virus that would infect other robots, leading them to obey this one's orders. "Hmm, Zero, the first number, and the end to all. I like it!" Wiley said madly (is there another way?). 

  
  


Of course, the virus wasn't ready yet. Right now, all it led to was a powerful berserker mode, but it also led to an uncontrolled craving for destruction. The AI programming within the virus still needed tweaking, but Zero's directives were clear. To destroy the lab of Dr. Light. Failing that, Zero was equipped with an auto-shutdown and a memory wipe, and had none of Wiley's usual identifying marks, leaving only the robot's formidable fighting skills. His perfect creation, and probably the one that would end his career, Wiley was not a young man any more, and his health was failing due to the stress of building Robot Masters only to watch them ground down. Wiley dropped the virus chip back in the data reader for now, and headed off towards lunch

  
  


Suddenly, Wiley felt another stabbing pain in his head, and his vision clouded. Wiley realized with horror he was suffering a stroke, and the realization was blasted away with more pain. Bass ran into the room, alerted by some drone on camera duty. "Boss, are you all right?" Bass yelled, roughly picking the doctor up. Wiley groaned, and then realized something. Various contingencies had been set for his death, and one of which was to activate Zero! The virus chip was in the data reader, and the virus still was uncontrollable!

  
  


"No, I must stop it!" Wiley yelled, rather melodramatically in Bass's opinion. Quickly, several medical drones were coming by, but Wiley's actions were slowing down quickly. "Bass, the chip! Get the chip!" Bass nodded, dropping Wiley with the medical drones, and quickly started to input it into his systems. "No, you fool!" Bass didn't listen, already under the throes of what would eventually be termed the 'Maverick Virus'. Bass dropped the programming chip down on a chair, and then followed his new programming, and he blasted the medical drones away quickly. Guard drones came in, but he managed to fell them quickly. Bass walked past the dying Wiley. The virus was weakened in Bass's lesser processors, at least, compared to Zero's, and was unable to override certain hard-wired coding, like protect Wiley. 

  
  


"Now, after Light!" roared Bass. Bass grinned as he ran to find Treble, this power was incredible! He could finally destroy his Master's arch-nemesis, and gain power over this world. First thing, was to share this gift with Treble. He closed the door on Dr. Wiley, still lying on the floor, and set out to dominate.

  
  


Wiley groaned, without medical attention, he was in serious danger, but there was still time. His creation was out of HIS control, that would not do. Wiley did not have time to activate Bass's shutdown codes, but he did have a super robot. Wiley quickly changed the code from 'destroy Dr. Light's lab' to 'stop Bass', figuring Bass would do a plenty good job taking care of the lab, and Megaman in his current condition. Or else, Zero would arrive in time for his self-defense protocols to finish off the lab. Sadly, the robot would then enter stasis afterwards, but there was no time to change that. Wiley hit the last few buttons, the computer hit confirm, and then all was darkness.

  
  


The park battle was going fairly well, and even Bebop had to admit sparring was enjoyable excitement. The two didn't have a massive arsenal of weapons, but Bebop's laser array gave him a variety of nasty tricks to confuse homing missile signatures, at least, when the two weren't exchanging punches in mid air. They had lost track of time, at least actively. Of course, they could call up internal systems and get a readout, but it wasn't as fun. Right now, the two were taking a slight break, letting their auto-repair deal with minor dents, and Rhythm and Staff needed to recharge every so often. They couldn't keep up flight and weapon boosting duties without stopping once in a while. In response, the two were dropping a small selection of reserve energy containers into their pet's waiting maws. 

  
  


Jazz suddenly stiffened, "I'm getting a signal!" Jazz paused for a moment, and then looked distressed, "No! Something's blocking me out. Bebop, I can't edit it in time! In a few seconds, I need you to lie down and play dead!" Bebop had no time to respond, as Jazz suddenly opened fire with her missiles. Taken by surprise, Bebop got hit by all four of them.

  
  


For a second, he was amazed by the fact he had no damage, and then remembered that Jazz had been using smoke warheads all afternoon. Bebop quickly flopped down, hoping she was being trustworthy, and he wasn't about to be slammed by high explosives. After a moment, he risked looking up.

Jazz was frozen stiff, except for a slight trembling, before she relaxed, looking shaken, and held her arms like she was cold, "A code got triggered. I think Dr. Wiley's dead! He tried to hijack my operating system, make me kill all of Dr. Light's creations I could find." Bebop was surprised that Jazz was naming names, as it were, but she seemed to lost for that. Her creator and father figure, twisted though he was, was apparently gone, and in his last moments, tried to take her away from herself.

  
  


Bebop walked over and hugged her, and she glomped onto him, needing something to grab. Bebop wasn't exactly sure what to do now, and simply murmured reassuring phrases. Bebop felt sick just thinking about what had happened, she had just gone against the most fundamental parts of her code. Bebop felt a surge of hope that he could do the same and avoid becoming a killer of his fellows, followed by loathing that he would think of himself right now. Jazz laughed bitterly, "I guess I am truly a thinking creature now, am I? I've betrayed father," and then the tears came.

  
  


Bass teleported down into the city, launching a barrage of bolts. He had gotten some helpers, and infected whichever Robot Masters had been lying around. Wiley had only completed half of his next planned set, Protonman fired off light, unstable fusion blasts, far better than Rock's plasma, and was covered with several atomic symbols. Earthman was a revamped version of Gutsman, and equipped with the ability to rip up boulders and throw them, or launch explosive grenades. Islandman was wearing a lei and grass skirt, and shot beams of solar energy. Tanukiman resembled a giant raccoon, and attacked with short claws, his weight, and a short range energy drain attack. Now the group followed their new objectives, destroy as much as possible. People fled screaming, but Bass was too far gone to notice. A part of him realized he had to get to Dr. Light's lab quickly, as the virus was too much, and his systems were shutting down under its influence. "Spread out," he ordered, "Do as much carnage as possible." The Robot Masters saluted and started spreading off, firing as they went. Bass started running through town, it was a way's to Dr. Light's lab. He could have gotten closer, but then he wouldn't have been able to do as much damage.

  
  


In Dr. Light's office, alarms started off. Roll, cleaning up in the lab, quickly went over and checked the computer, which was on alert to scan police frequencies and reports from around the world with words like 'energy weapons', 'robot', 'Wiley', and 'now I'm really going to die'. Roll's eyes widened in surprise. The reports were coming from the city itself! Rock and Rush came in, studied the map for a moment, and then Rush transformed to jet mode and Rock jumped on, warping into his armor. Roll barely hit the ceiling hatch release in time as Megaman shuttled up through it. Roll knew her job as well, alert all of Dr. Light's robots to prepare for war.

  
  


Earthman rumbled through Central Park, picking up trees and throwing them after people. When he saw structures, he pumped grenades into them. The two huddled sentients in a quiet corner of the park heard the distant sound of explosions at the same time Bebop's radio crackled to life. Bebop muttered, "What great timing! There are robots running around. Hear, I'll transmit to you." Jazz nodded once, sharply.

  
  


"Bebop! We've got trouble! Megaman has already gone along his way, but we've got berserker robots in the city! They don't seem to be trying to take anything over, they're just blowing everything up!" Roll's voice came over the radio waves, a bit more worried than usual, this was outside her code's experience on robot behavior, and she didn't know how to react.

  
  


Jazz and Bebop didn't know how to react either, but they could adapt far faster. Jazz looked worried, "This isn't like Father! Something's gone wrong. Robots don't go out just to destroy everything in an area! They must be misprogrammed!" Jazz took a deep breath, "I can't just let his mistakes run around, care to help me." 

  
  


Bebop nodded, and said, "Sure, but let's try and stay away from Megaman, he'll wonder where I picked up a spare." Jazz nodded, eyes alight with the idea of battle, even as Bebop sent a confirmation signal back to Roll. Rhythm and Staff transformed to jet modes and launched. 

  
  


The two flew low, trying to observe anything in the area. There weren't a lot of drones lying around, oddly enough, it seemed only a few bats had been packed, easily picked off. Then the two got knocked from the sky by the concussive blast of one of Earthman's grenades. The two were glad for their armor on landing, as it saved them with only minimal energy loss to transfer to repairs. Rhythm and Staff lay, stuck in jet modes for the minute while their systems howled to compensate for the damage.

  
  


"Great, no battle armor," muttered Jazz. Bebop started charging his laser weapon as Jazz did the same for her missile loadout, switched back to standard high explosives. 

  
  


Jazz looked a trifle worried through her battle lust though, "I've only trained with Bass, oh friend of mine, so I'm not quite sure what exactly we're going to face." Bebop slapped his forehead with a hand in astonishment. Before they could continue, a blood-freezing howl sounded through the area.

  
  


A massive black and brown robot, spikes on his shoulders, elbows, and knees, stomped into view from behind some trees. He had a large and nasty gun barrel on his shoulder, from which he spat a tiny rock-shaped projectile. The two robots dove for cover as the grenade exploded. Jazz whistled even as she was still rolling, "I so want that!" Bebop rolled his eyes. The two, with fluidity from a long time working together, paused, straightened to being in a crouch, and let loose their charged blasts. A large green beam smacked into armor on the right flank as missiles swarmed over Earthman. With the holocaust of destruction passed, Earth Man stood their, singed. He chuckled beastily as he tore at the ground, flinging it randomly.

  
  


Bebop frowned. "Something is very wrong with him," the robot called out, "he should be saying something, or focusing on us, frankly. It's not like the ground is the threat." 

  
  


Jazz called as she pumped a few more missiles into him, "Well, if we can get through this guy's armor, when he's off-line we can do a data dump when we go grab his weapon." Bebop nodded as he unleashed a few normal blasts. The distraction worked too well, as the maverick Robot Master charged forward, slamming into Bebop, and knocking him into a tree. Bebop groaned, and struggled to move, but his available energy supply dropped by half due to the damage. Jazz's frantic missiles only slowed the robot down slightly. Earth Man's defenses were dropping, but far too slowly. They needed a cutter style weapon to pierce his armor, if this wasn't going to take an hour.

  
  


Staff bounded forward, transforming along the way so that over the front two joints by the robocat's head rested two small cannons, copies of the waist cannons Bebop had in Adapter mode. Two thin dark green beams shot out, targeted for the optics. Earth Man howled, and slammed into Staff, sending the cat flying away, where it ceased to move, low on energy and in emergency repair mode. The desperation move, as Staff's lasers on her own cost most of her energy, gave Bebop the time to collect himself enough to fire a level three blast. Blue energy beams shot from his cannons into the monster in front of him, driving it back long enough for Bebop to scramble away. 

  
  


Earth \man turned around. Much of his front was slag by now, and by all experience that the two had with previous battle tapes, the robot should have stopped moving by now. Jazz whispered, "It's like Megaman or Bass gone mad. But Father doesn't like putting emotion programming into most of his robots because he needs methodical workers for his plans. This isn't right!"

  
  


Bebop nodded, something just seemed wrong about this robot. He sighed, they were probably going to have to destroy it beyond all hopes of repair. This didn't make Bebop happy, even as he charged his laser up. "Weapons of war fighting for peace, huh?" he said with a half smile. 

  
  


Jazz sighed, "Oh, no time to go pacifist on me! Just keep him from shooting any more of those grenades around, and I'll move in. I know you've taken more damage than me, judging by those dents in your armor. To quote 'to live, one must fight', and you know it as well as I do, coming into the world as a war machine, so let's finish it off and see what's going on, and we can go back to sparring, okay?" Bebop nodded uneasily, launching a laser blast as cover as Jazz moved in.

  
  


Earthman cackled as he launched a grenade at the pretty orange target, but it was shot from the air by one of Bebop's lasers. Finally fully charged (Jazz's missiles took a little longer than a mere energy streak to reach full potential power), all her missile launchers opened and exploded outwards. The shreds of armor remaining after a ten minute dance of firepower failed, and Earthman's internal circuitry was shredded. The light went out of the robot's eyes permanently as it fell over. Jazz and Bebop barely managed to keep from falling over in exhaustion as well.

  
  


Jazz said, "I'm at, sheesh! 32 percent operation capacity, and Rhthym's reading in at 46 percent. I didn't get hit that often, did I?"

  
  


Bebop shrugged, and said, "I'm at 19 percent, and that's partly because I've been sitting here. Staff's at three percent. I don't suppose there's an energy tank or two in his chest waiting for us?" Jazz staggered over to look, and shook her head in disgust, feeling after all that effort, she should be rewarded.

  
  


That brought her mind back around to what to do next. "Okay, Bebop, we obviously need some better firepower around here. Come and get a copy of his weapon system and see what your programming does with it. Plus, I want you to come look at the data download when we get through his memory banks." Bebop came over slowly, and then held up his hands.

  
  


"Let me radio Dr. Light for a few energy tank drop-offs first. He can teleport them here, and our auto-repair, and cats for that matter, could use the boost," said the green and grey warrior. Jazz took a moment to look at the sprawled, damaged felines, and then nodded. Having the battle armor would make the next fight go easier. A moment later, with a flash, came a set of six energy tanks. Jazz looked surprised, and Bebop explained, "Yeah, my system won't hold all of these, but the idea was that I could carry a full load after recharging. Still, that leaves us one each." Jazz nodded, and drank down the energy involved, passing one to her cat, who tore into the tank eagerly, knowing what goodies lay inside. Bebop did the same, though Rhythm picked at his a bit more gently, possibly due to his greater damage.

  
  


"Okay, boys, let's just pick up the weapon systems, and be on our way," Jazz said cheerfully, despite the fact they were effectively breaking down the final defenses of the robot in front of him and picking over its mind like grave robbers. Bebop consoled himself that the robot was preprogrammed, and its circuit boards were probably intact enough to be rebuilt in a new body. 

  
  


The two held their hands over the body, and nanoprobes cycled out, downloading information from the circuit boards. The two reeled as if struck for a few moments, feeling something try and attack them, but the virus was in a damaged host, without the processing power to go through true AI's defenses. Plus, Wiley and Light weren't fools, and the variable weapon systems had powerful defenses against that sort of thing, as the scientists believed it was a rather open route that could be blocked off. The two got off amazingly lucky, considering the future hundreds who would suffer from a more powerful version. 

  
  


The two sat down, trying to focus despite the strain that had been put on their computers. Jazz said it succinctly, "What in the silicon hells was THAT?" 

  
  


Bebop focused past a clearing, though pounding headache, "Some virus that infected his systems I guess? Opportunistic bugger to try and jump from a dying corpse through our weapon copy abilities." Bebop did a quick scan, and said, "I don't think anything's missing, and I got the weapon." Bebop's color scheme switched to tans as he said, "Grenade launcher. Think I'll call it the Terra Bomb. How about you?"

  
  


Jazz staggered once more as the last remnants of the weak virus she could detect were cleared, and her armor changed to tans as well, "Cool, I've got improved armor in this mode. It sucks up weapon energy from attacks and then unleashes it. Hmm, I like your idea and I'll go with Terra Burst. Now, I wonder where the next robot is?" 

  
  


Bebop sent a radio signal off to Roll, "Up in the Bronx, I think. Roll's already evacuating Light back to his main lab in Tokyo. I've told Roll to tell the others to be careful when taking weapons." 

  
  


Jazz nodded, "We'll need to get across the river quickly," she said, "And they're probably drones all over the bridges. Mega Adapter is probably the way to go." Bebop nodded, and the two shifted color schemes to match their support units before taking off, keeping low, blasting the few drones along their way."

  
  


Bass grimaced, he could feel his data link to Earthman had shut down. Worse of all, he had gotten a transmission of his sister attacking! His directives were in conflict, hard-wired to protect her, but also trying to destroy her as she had apparently resisted the infection. Then, his eyes widened, as he realized there were two near telemetry links. They two traitors hadn't quite removed the virus completely, there were a few commands among low-level subsystems that he could detect. He thought of a way to ease the conflict between objectives. "Islandman, two humanoid robots are headed your way," thought Bass through a radio link.

  
  


"Understood. I will engage them," thought back the more simplistic Robot Master.

  
  


"No! You idiot, I've got a better method!" Bass relayed his plan, and the Robot Master murmured agreement.

  
  


"Stupid, stupid Mets! What is it with the constant use of Mets!" Jazz asked as she launched a swarm of missiles against the refitted and reprogrammed mining robots, spitting tiny plasma blasts from along the shore line. 

  
  


Bebop shrugged, busy spinning through a crowd of robotic insects, "At least yours aren't moving!" he hissed back over a radio link. Idly, Roll wondered who he was talking too, but her programming considered it a simple glitch, and made a note to discuss it later with Dr. Light.

Despite their words, a few charged blasts from their weapon grids cleared the problem, but they suffered a bit for it. Jazz was at seventy percent energy, but her armor systems, courtesy of Rhythm were running low at forty percent, and that was after picking up recharge capsules. Bebop had cleared it with a few blasts, but he had taken more hits from the energy-draining drones, so Staff was at sixty percent, and he was only running fifty-six percent energy. With a thought, the two both drained their final energy tank, recharging all systems.

  
  


"Aloha!" shouted a voice from the far shoreline. The two turned, and watched a very loudly dressed stout robot wearing sunglasses step up. "My name is Islandman, and watching the circuits melt from your body will be quite pleasant." The robot balled his fists, and shot a few energy beams out. The two swooped in midair to avoid it.

  
  


Jazz sighed, "I'm really starting to wonder about this bloodthirsty streak in the latest set." Bebop shrugged, charging up an Adapter-boosted blast. Jazz thought about trying her new weapon system out, but decided that since she was above water, it was a good idea to use the Adapter systems. She started charging as well. 

"Naughty, naughty," chided Islandman. He had better reaction programming than Earthman. "Shutdown code, MAV-1!" The two blinked in surprise, and then gasped as their weapon systems and jet boosters shut down. "I figure it will take you a few seconds to override, but let's add this to the equation, shall we?" Now fairly helpless targets, Islandman pumped one long beam into each of them, vaporizing most of the armor, and frying low-level circuitry. The two collapsed, helplessly into the water.

  
  


The two hit the bottom a few seconds later, and just sat their helplessly, locked up by viral functions that had nestled themselves quicker than the two robots' defenses had compensated. Their movement systems were still down. The two triggered their automatic distress beacons and worked on clearing their systems as best as possible. Though, Jazz thought grimly, she doubted she had the strength to reach the surface with her energy level so low, and the extra weight of the jetpack.

  
  


Bebop thought a radio signal, "Best we can do is go into repair cycle for now, and hope for a pickup. We can't even disengage Adapter mode underwater." Jazz concurred, leaking coolant fluid into the water, and the two went into a minimum activation mode, all fusion tank energy going to repairs. Equipped with the next generation in defensive systems, and the materials at the bottom of the East River, full repair was eventually possible; mind you, the two wanted to get picked up before then, as without the help of a repair bay, it would take years.

  
  


Sadly, that wasn't to be. Bass had sped through town to reach Dr. Light's lab, upon hearing word that Megaman had managed to defeat Tanukiman, and a simpler scan of the abilities than the data download Bebop and Jazz attempted gave him Tanuki's slicers. If he was slowed down too long by the various defense forces, he wouldn't be able to reach Light! Soon, Light's temporary lab was in sight. Bass charged his weapon and opened fire, tearing a hole through one side of the converted warehouse.

  
  


Hidden inside was a computer receiving a request for evacuation from one wet robot. It died partly in the first strike. Any hopes of getting data from the computer died with the remnants of its hard drive on the second plasma strike. Protoman, who had been fighting a compliment of drones that had been unleashed by Bass, hurried when he heard the explosions. Protoman smiled. Bass had failed, Roll had radioed that Light had been evacuated almost half an hour ago. Just like Bass to rush in without checking out things. 

  
  


Still, he had found Bass, and would succeed where his brother would fail, finally stopping the menace to society. Bass, meanwhile, found his systems slowly being overwhelmed by the virus, as the conflict between his protect directives and the virus's need to destroy was sapping more and more of his processor power into an endless loop. Still, Bass found the destruction of the lab helped him think a bit better. 

  
  


Protoman opened up from behind with a series of shots that slammed into Bass's Treble-wings. Bass literally snarled and turned around. Protoman hesitated, it seemed that Bass's eyes were feral, like a dog, but a robot couldn't get rabies, could it? Bass opened up in the middle of Blues's hesitation, slamming him with plasma. Protoman gasped and returned fire. The fight was amazing, but Protoman was a robot, while Bass practically had true emotions and hot fire running through his veins.

  
  


Luckily, Protoman also had E-tanks prepped and waiting, and could recover. Bass finally fell, but driven by the Virus, sacrificed Treble to absorb the final blow and scooted away. Protoman followed, he was not about to let such a deadly force hurt humanity. 

  
  


At the same time Jazz and Bebop were sleeping with the fishes and Protoman was dealing with Bass, and conclusively dealt with Treble, Megaman, the Blue Bomber and hero of the world, had finally dealt with the last of the Robot Masters, and was engaged in cleanup operations. He had missed much of the action, involved in a struggle for death, but the threat seemed to be over for now.

  
  


It wasn't. The mad hunter approached. Zero, savior for the future was currently dashing around the city, searching for Bass and dealing with all who tried to slow him down, with weaponry advanced over everything but the eventual Megaman X's. But X was asleep, and not quite finished. Zero, meanwhile, didn't have all the data that Jazz and Bebop started with deliberately, his thinking processes were geared towards causing mayhem and destruction. 

  
  


And so the players began to converge as Bass moved back towards Manhatten, followed by Protoman. Megaman was headed towards the same bridge, ready for a few minor repairs his system couldn't deal with. 

And Zero, first activated robot designed from the start to have and develop emotions and his own thoughts, raced towards both.

  
  


To be continued.

  
  



	3. First Interlude

Interlude 1: Paper beats Rock, Scissors beat Paper, Rock beat Zero?

  
  


by Tremor3258

  
  


Disclaimer: This teensy tiny part not brought to you by Capcom, the rightful owners of Megaman, and all its many, many derivatives.

  
  


Dr. Light, important researcher, and one-man think tank behind Megaman, the Blue Bomber, was worried. Not about the current threat, Rock had handled it with his usual aplomb, but from how the current threat had acted. From the reports Roll had compiled, the robots hadn't been acting correctly, and Bebop had disappeared in his first sortie. For that mater, examinations begun by Megaman and Bebop had pointed to Wiley being dead. Still, that gave Light great hope that X would not have to deal with war in his future, but still, if the possibility became necessary. "I guess the basic designs didn't have enough power, and I can't just stop the testing process on X. Of course, he might not need them, I should be able to go in and set up some relays if he decides to fight to grant him power-ups," mused the researcher, already thinking of future battles, which gave him the occasional burst of depression. His robots had been intended for peaceful purposes before both sides had suborned them for use in combat. Light hoped X would have a better path. Light called Roll over. He would have her call the brothers, asking them to take Bass in one piece, so they could examine for what was wrong.

  
  


Bass fled. He was damaged, and the virus wanted to continue functioning. Most of those infected were already gone, and Bass doubted he could quickly take down Protoman. So affected by those problems, he didn't notice Megaman and Rush coming from the opposite direction. Bass roared, and fired quickly, his weapons were unaffected. Megaman, caught by surprise, got knocked down. Protoman decided to waste a few precious seconds grabbing up his younger brother, figuring that Bass was acting so far out of normal parameters, that a little assistance would come in handy. Megaman had it already pegged as such that Protoman was really worried, and followed behind quietly.

  
  


Bass wandered the streets, looking for something to infect. When the lean blond-haired warrior bot stepped out into the open from an alley, Bass saw a target. So did Zero, but he knew what he was dealing with to a far greater degree than the ailing Bass. Zero slammed forth with a blast, and Zero's arm-mounted buster was a lightyear ahead of Bass's current systems. The robot had managed to make emergency repairs with his systems, or Bass would have ceased to function right there. As it was, the force of the blow was sufficient to knock the robot skidding along for several meters.

  
  


Protoman jumped reflexively as Bass went skidding past the intersection he was approaching, with an rocket-boosted orange robot heading after it. Protoman reached the intersection, and saw the orange robot preparing to blast him to pieces. "No, stop that! He must be taken intact!" yelled the robot. 

  
  


Zero shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry, but he's too dangerous to the world. What he had cannot be allowed to continue." Protoman paused. That sounded well thought-out, similar to phrasing humans used. Protoman paused, caught on the horns between the First and Second law of Robotics (a robot must protect humans, and then do as humans ordered, with the first law overriding the second). And Zero displayed his most important function, making a decision, feeling the mere unthinking robot behind him would soon attack and try and destroy him, Zero turned and fired. Megaman arrived in time to watch his brother fly backwards, tattered and having his wires exposed from the force that shut down Blues.

  
  


Megaman didn't notice that at the time, knowing the mission was more important, as Blues could be repaired later. Megaman began to attack Zero, but the robot had already unleashed another plasma charge, immolating Bass and causing the robot's fusion reactor to go super-critical. Then, booby trapped systems in Zero triggered, knocking the first thinking robot out. Megaman calmly walked over and collected Blues and Zero, placing them on Rush in jet mode. He simulated emotion rather well, and was close to decision processing, but wasn't quite there. The death of Blues and Bass were barely noticed besides a log in his data banks.

  
  


Light was a bit more torn up when they gathered in Tokyo a week or two later, and taking their cues from that, Rock and Roll acted a bit more morose as well. A pang got shot through Light, knowing that no matter how advanced Rock acted, he was still programmed. Still, Rock had collected the data banks of the Robot Masters, and Light was carefully going over them, using systems that were kept physically separate from everything else. Dr. Light was horrified to find that Bebop had been shot down over the river, along with some sort of apparent cat-drone, but that was weeks ago. Without the coordinates of the initial beacon, the odds of finding him were slim to none. 

  
  


"Of course, he may have survived that. In that case, he'll eventually come back," murmured Light. Of course! In that time, the dreamstate that the repair cycle would put Bebop in would probably break him free of preprogrammed restraints. It was a simple matter, Light would install a capsule, buried underneath the one X was in, that would teleport out if Bebop came searching for the lab, which would imply he was still following orders, and hopefully the Laws of Robotics. Considering the AI advancement system for X's armor Dr. Light was developing, all it would take would a signal from that capsule, and the other capsules would make themselves available for Bebop. 

  
  


Bebop was basically X's design with a few minor modifications, and the capsules were designed to continue scanning world science nets and work on small experiments of their own, given effective limited Artificial Intelligence. Then Bebop could reach modern, whenever that was, capacities, and still be able to function as a productive member of society. Light sighed, he hadn't expected to throw two robots into the world without a lot of assistance from him, but that was the hand fate dealt him, "I'm sorry Bebop, it's the best I can do." Light shook himself, and then turned and looked at the deactivated Zero, "Now, let's see about you, my mysterious friend."

  
  


Time passed. Light discovered more about Zero, and surprised Wiley could put such potential into a machine to make it the equal, or greater, to humans in thinking ability, but still such a machine designed to fight, Light decided to put it in stasis for a while to run similar checks on it, burying it in Wiley's fortress. Zero would eventually activate, freed of some of Wiley's programming, as Light couldn't see himself simply wiping the mind of an ACTUAL THINKING ROBOT, and hopefully become a warrior for good. 

X continued to be tested and reacted, to ensure he would not try and harm humanity. Megaman continued to serve as the guardian of order for several years, but the death of Wiley meant the end of the Robot Wars, and Rock spent more of time in his original role as a companion for Light. Eventually, Light died from old age, after spending much of his later life in seclusion. Rock, Roll, and most everyone else from the original games was immolated in lava. Sigma stopped by Wiley's fortress, taken over by some Mavericks, and was affected by the Maverick Virus, turning him into a living representation of said virus. X defeated Sigma, apparently destroying him, four separate times, and stopped four separate massive uprisings of Mavericks.

  
  


Meanwhile, in what was once New York, the rivers eventually changed, and a team of engineers were sent out to dig a foundation. One day, they ran across two bodies in their excavations...

  
  



	4. Lychanthroptic action!

Living the Lycanthroptic Lifestyle

  
  


New York was recovering from the various affects of the recent Repliforce attacks. As part of such, new high-rise towers were being placed into town. The foundations for these monsters went far deeper than ever before, but they were better armored against assault. Still, reploid-human relations were doing quite well, since the last attack was caused by a military force primarily. So, a generally mixed crew, with reploid foreman even, was busy digging out the basement levels.

  
  


"Hey, Surge, you might want to get over here?" The foreman, busy looking at plans, noticed two of his workers, with construction versions of Chimeras, having stopped working. Surge had been intended for underwater construction work, and resembled a giant grouper, equipped with plasma welders and thick armor to withstand pressure. Unfortunately, he wasn't the most agile reploid on land, and it took him a few minutes to get over.

  
  


By that time, the two workers had managed to clear a bit of mud off the irregular-shaped object they had found. Surge whistled in surprise, "Some sort of old robot? The city archeologist said this used to be the river bottom 40 years ago." The others nodded. New York had a lot of history, and the city had hired scientists to help take care of any artifacts found while digging. This tended to slow down the process a little, but the city was doing surprisingly well tax-wise, and paid off on the delays, especially when they could seize the land for major finds and run tours through the area.

  
  


Surge examined the pit closely. The Chimera had taken a giant scoop out of the bottom, and apparently dragged the mud-streaked, wait, two mud-streaked robots clear. One was rather black under the dark grey mud, and the other was pretty much brown, and seemed a lighter build. It was hard to tell, with them all tangled up. Surge opened up a phone to contact the city. Basically, the rest of the day was shot, especially since this was an amazingly intact find. 

  
  


Bebop and Jazz had spent the time basically sleeping, which had unexpected consequences. While random, active data sectors connecting created odd dream-like images in the low-power state, no one had intended a robot to sleep for that long, especially with a support animal attached, meaning their programming was in contact. This wouldn't have done a lot except for a few traces of the Virus's corruption left.

With a bit of the Maverick Virus left, though the parts that were left had come through the variable weapon grid, and were the more combat related options of the Virus, with less of the mindlessness. This hunt for better fighting ability tied its way through Jazz and Bebop's central programming, carrying along traces of Staff and Rhythm's personality matrices as well, leaving the two sentients with a slightly modified self-image that their auto-repair systems had taken to heart. 

  
  


Then there were the slight changes to the old 'fight and flight' reflex. These became evident upon the two's exposure to air again, having been unable to free themselves of the weight of mud after their damage had been repaired. Air flowed in as the two took sudden deep gasping breaths, restoring full fuel supply to the fusion reactors at the robot's cores. The reploids in the area, naturally jumped back in shock, and moved behind the Chimera tank to peer in surprise at the zombie robots. Blinking, the two stood up, and hissed in surprise at the same time.

  
  


They weren't quite in the same bodies they had been shot down in. The support units looked similar, and they still had the same color, but their stance had become a little more hunched over. The claws from the support animals' legs had been lengthened, and as Jazz found out by experimentation, retractable, leaving the former small claws from the support animals. Looking at each other in surprise, their eyes had vertical-slit pupils, and tiny fangs stuck out the sides of their mouth.

Jazz shook her head, trying to regain her balance after being in stasis for, actually, she wasn't sure how long. "Um, Bebop, do you remember upgrades being part of the sleep procedure?" Bebop was looking over himself in surprise, and shook his head.

  
  


Bebop then said, "Well, we were out a little longer than it should have taken. I guess we got dug up, hey! Thanks guys!" Bebop called to the mechanicals he saw hiding behind the large... thing in front of him.

  
  


"Do you think they're Dr. Wiley's or something?" whispered one of the workers to Surge. 

"I don't know. They don't have forehead gems, I don't think they're reploids, but call in some Hunters anyway,"said Surge referring to Light using the old helmet designs for his prototypes. Surge peeked out at the two, who were mainly staring around in confusion. Surge shrugged, and walked out towards them. If they were dangerous, he figured his armor would last long enough to get him to safety and call in the hunters. "Um, hello, can I help you?" he called, and why were you buried under a ton of mud?

  
  


Jazz said, "Um, maybe? Do you know how we could get to Dr. Light? He'd probably be willing to help me, right?" Bebop nodded abstractly, still running a system diagnostic, figuring out what on Earth had happened, and Jazz continued, "I think our auto-repair system got a little confused. I didn't use to have claws," Jazz's eyes widened, "Or the ability to charge special weapons, or even use them in adapter mode! That's a hell of an improvement! Bebop, do you have this?"

  
  


Bebop blinked, and did a search, "Yeah. Wow, maybe we got a transmission or something to our repair circuits?"

  
  


Surge coughed, breaking into the discussion, "Um, did you mean Dr. Thomas Light?"

  
  


Bebop said, "Yeah. Is there another one where robots are involved?" He paused, and then said, "You know, you're pretty well programmed to draw a conclusion that quickly. Who was your designer?"

  
  


Jazz interrupted, "And where I can get one of those giant walkers?" her eyes shone at the damage potential.

  
  


Surge paused, "Um, actually, you could say my designer was Dr. Light, but he's been dead for more than thirty years." The two turned and stared, before breaking into laughter. Surge asked, "I mean, how else could X have come out, and gotten his circuits scanned and copied? I mean, you guys do know history, right?" Surge wondered to himself, what's with these guys, acting as if he's alive? 

  
  


Bebop sat down at that, "X was activated?" he said weakly. Jazz looked at him quizzically, and Bebop explained, "X was the 'final' version of my circuits, though I'm copied from his designs. Dr. Light was checking out the decision-making capability, though he did his best to hard-wire a bunch of code. But, for the final version, X was going to have total ability to make decisions, but Dr. Light needed to check X for the rules of robotics. X was sealed in a capsule before I was even started on construction." Bebop pointed at a Met, busy cutting away dirt with its plasma beam to its little preprogrammed mind's content, and sighed in relief, "Hah! A Metool, thought you could fool me, but I doubt you'd be using the same little guys forty years from now!"

Surge chuckled, "Actually, that's a Metool Mark-17." Bebop groaned, beaten again as he noticed little improvements to the machine, and Surge continued, "That's a pretty good story, but no one knows what happened after X was placed in the capsule to Dr. Light. Wiley did his final attack and that." 

  
  


Jazz said weakly, "Fa- Dr. Wiley's really dead as well?" Jazz sat down in astonishment. 

  
  


Surge blinked in surprise, and said more kindly, "Oh, I'm sorry." If these two aren't lying through their teeth, these are reploids, built by Light! This is an amazing discovery, and, Surge had to admit in honesty, It'll be my name next to the discovery! 

  
  


Jazz seemed shaken, and so Bebop asked, "Do you have a hose around here or something? I'd like to try and get some of this sludge off me. Come on Jazz," Bebop ordered, and Jazz, jerked up and followed, like she was in a trance. Then Bebop froze in astonishment, and Jazz bumped into her friend, before seeming to come out of it. To Jazz's wordless question, he said, shaken, "I can't disengage the Adapter, it's like Staff is gone! His programming...some of its gone or corrupted. He got integrated into my system permanently!" Bebop then broke down into tears. He was the one who had gotten attacked in midair, and now, he had killed off his pet, unintentional or otherwise, apparently the one thing he had of his creator and father figure, besides X, who he had no idea about the personality or history of.

  
  


Jazz, pretending to be a pillar of strength, admittedly a shaken one, as she said, "Ah, there's probably just a little gunk into the system. Right, okay, so disconnect, Rhythm!" Nothing. "Oh sweet god in heaven. Rhythm, disconnect." Jazz did a quick diagnostic as nothing happened. Bebop had been right, Rhythm was in with Jazz, at least as far as systems and programs went, and now was effectively a portion of Jazz herself. 

  
  


"Here, let's get you two cleaned up," murmured Surge, feeling a bit worried. He'd seen a few acquaintances suffer from similar moods, right before they went Maverick. Not the Virus kind, but when they felt humanity had constrained them to the point they felt violence was the only answer. The problem, while understandable under human prejudice in some cases with REAL bigots, was that reploids power was feared sufficiently the only response was to wipe the individual's personality clean, and these two spoke of events that even the famed X was unsure of. That meant, that from an archeological standpoint, they were invaluable. From a emotional standpoint, Surge didn't want to see anyone memory wiped. 

  
  


One of the workers called over, "Sir, the Hunters have arrived via teleport to the top level of our excavations. Local branch could send only a couple of rookies, but Tokyo Headquarters said they were sending X and Zero, they're interested in this era of robots."

  
  


Jazz, mutely being hosed off, brightened, "Oh, Zero is here too, with X? I guess free will really does exist!" laughed Jazz, though more to get her mind off what she had killed through her own carelessness. 

  
  


"You know about the Maverick Hunter commanders?" asked Surge, after he explained a little about the Hunters history and Reploids. Anything to get them out of a depressive cycle. 

  
  


Jazz laughed nervously, "Well, not technically, no. I know something about them, but I don't know them, per se. I mean, they were under construction when we were activated... do you hear weapons fire?" Jazz asked in concern. Bebop looked up to, feeling a sensation he had felt, to his mind, only recently before: the pounding and excitement of battle, and one look at Jazz showed she felt it too, evidently stronger than usual.

  
  


Surge cocked his head, and if he was human his face would pale. "That sounds like plasma fire! What's going on?" Surge and the two workmen started to run forward towards the elevator, followed by the lesser machines in the area. The door opened, and three Hunters, one humanoid, the others more animal models, stepped out, but they had the usual Hunter symbol crossed out, with one of Sigma's symbols marked crudely in its place." The three opened fire with a bizarre barrage of energy beams. Surge survived the initial barrage easily due to his armor, but his workers didn't. Surge grabbed the phone from the blasted apart remains of his colleague as he ducked behind a low set of rubble. Jazz and Bebop had dropped down at the first energy blast. Surge hit the panic button on the phone, calling local authorities, "The hunters we got sent! They've gone Maverick!" Surge screamed in fear. 

  
  


The three hunters were relatively new, and had been exposed to the Virus under unexpected circumstances. Now they had been reborn under the horrible influences. One, a humanoid model done up in black and whites similar to lightning, was now simply calling himself Smasher. He had a standard buster model.

  
  


Another one was busy searching for targets to reprogram. He was done up in greens and greys, grey being the main color, and resembled a humanoid dolphin. He had a set of energy blasts and could shoot metal strands resembling seaweed to stop and hold prey. Afterwards, if they were Reploid, he would expose them to the Virus, otherwise, they could reprogram them for Troops later. He now called himself Tangler Orca. 

  
  


The final one resembled a rhino, right down to a large horn from which he could shoot force blasts, and was painted in a bright colorful collage of colors, which he promised himself even through the madness he'd change to something less cheerful and more bloodthirsty. Right now he was calling himself Sledgehammer Rhino, but he was thinking of changing it.

  
  


Regardless, two old-model fighters locked on him as their target, due to his color scheme reminding them of an error long ago. "All in favor of taking Hawaiian-shirt boy down?" asked Jazz. Rhino roared and charged Bebop responded by switching to his Terra Bomb weapon, pleased to see it still operational, and lobbing a grenade at the massed set of hunters, behind Rhino. The grenade exploded, sending shrapnel into all the hunters. Surge ducked down farther.

  
  


There weren't thoughts about why the Hunters were doing it, or the reasons behind growing Maverick. They saw an opportunity to right an old wrong, and at least start balancing the scales on some deaths. 

  
  


Smasher grunted, "Rhino, these two are some antique wardroids. Handle them please. There aren't enough humans on this level to do any good." Rhino grunted, feeling like a good fight. Orca grabbed Surge in his seaweed chains, and then started dragging him to the elevator. Surge wasn't strong enough, built to operate in the neutral buoyancy environment of the water, to break through the chains, and screamed in terror at the thought of losing himself to the Virus as he was hauled forward. 

  
  


Bebop, responding to new instincts of battle and old thoughts of protection, growled at the challenge and shot forward to cut the chains, claws extending. Rhino responded with a kinetic blast from his horn that shot Bebop slamming into a newly poured support. His systems flashed a damage report in the corner, "Shields at 43 percent?" whispered Bebop in astonishment. He didn't think it was possible to do that kind of damage in a single hit.

  
  


Jazz yelled when she saw Bebop fly into and let loose with a charged blast. Six missiles slammed into Rhino driving him backwards. She didn't expect that to be enough, so she switched to her version of Earth Man's weapon systems, her color changing to tan. Rhino didn't deem the color change important, and shot her with the kinetic blast. Jazz was better prepared for it, and even though her internals howled under the punishment, Jazz managed to fire her jets and keep the situation under control. She then cupper her hands together and put them in an old Street Fighter style fighting stance. An energy blast, the power of Rhino's horn amplified by her own energy, was launched from the Terra Burst weapon system. A tan beam of energy picked Rhino up, but only moved him a few feet.

  
  


Rhino gloated, "I thought so. Weapons technology hasn't moved quite a bit forward in this time period, but defenses and shield strength have gone through the roof. You may be able to dish it out, but you can't take it. Now, it's time to mash you two slowly into pieces."

  
  


Meanwhile, Surge was quivering in fear on the elevator. The idea of the virus, taking all your rationality and reason and making you something else terrified all Reploids. Now, these two were just going to do that to him, and make him something he wasn't. The elevator gave a cheerful ding as it reached ground level. As the doors slid open, the deadly red form of Zero, leader of Unit 0 itself, and Megaman X, wearing his fourth set of armor, stood waiting, saber and buster primed. "Hello boys, forget about us?" said Zero with a cocky grin. The Mavericks froze for a moment before lunging to attack.

  
  


Bebop had recovered himself by now, and wasn't quite sure what to do, but what was once Staff had an idea. Bebop rushed forward, charging his weapon system to his most powerful blast. Even though he had improved weapon systems available by Rhythm's systems tying in better with his variable weapon grid, so he could charge the Terra Bomb up into a volley of explosives, Rhino's thick hide made explosives unattractive. But, Bebop's lasers were working quickly.

  
  


Bebop feathered his jets to sidestep another blast aimed his way, and then ducked down and started to skid. Rhino smiled and activated a nasty pair of mini beam sabers, mounted on his wrists. Bebop was prepared for that sort of eventuality, though. Once he had a good slide going, he fired his jets again on his back to boost his power, effectively shrieking along the ground at a good clip. As the amazed Rhino watched, Bebop slid under, and delivered a set of four purple-colored overcharged particle streams into Rhino right as he slid in between the legs.

  
  


Though Reploids weren't built to suffer like that, even the male models, it wasn't exactly a heavily armored location due to the necessity of mobility and the fact it was darn near impossible to hit. If Bebop had dash thrusters, he'd never have made it, and, as it was, made a partial mess of his jet system. Still, Rhino was lifted into the air by the force of the blow as the X-ray lasers cut through the armor and shielding there to shred the sub-tank Rhino had come with. The energy purged itself through vents on his upper arms, but the damage was done, and Rhino went into emergency stasis as his fusion reactor went into emergency shutdown. 

  
  


Bebop stood up, huffing. On the other side, Jazz's color faded back to the browns and reds of her Adapter, well, now permanent armored form. She had a nasty scorch mark across her chest, and probably a dent under it, but she was intact. Bebop's wings looked a bit ragged and compressed, and he probably had a similar dent on his chest and back from that kinetic lance. Bebop shook himself. What he had done was out of character, an attack that would work, but you had to have exactly perfect position and timing, and Bebop probably wouldn't have risked it, once. Now it seemed perfectly natural. Bebop gave a mental shrug, he'd have to think about it later, but he felt a rough idea of what had happened, probably connected to his current urge to purr. 

  
  


Jazz herself seemed to be rumbling slightly, "Nice move. I don't think I could have pulled it off. Probably would have tried the claws out again," Jazz said in praise, "Now, let's take loud paint here's nifty, nasty weapon, and see what's happening up above." The two quickly placed their hands on the corpse, and did a quick scan for items, virus software ready. The Sigma version of the Maverick Virus tended to be a bit more careful about infecting only the personality matrices to change Reploids into Mavericks, rather than running the whole system into the ground. Luckily, there were no problems, and the two picked out a couple different things.

  
  


"Hah! I like this!" Jazz ignited a beam saber from one of her wrist missile launchers. Evidently, they had some serious modularity. "I can do a nifty long-range double slash if I charge it. I'm just going to call it a beam saber, what did you get?"

  
  


Bebop paused, and then smiled, "Nifty kinetic beam weapon, and, if I'm reading this right, I can charge it up to form a force field. Plus, it'll be a static force field, at least until it gets breached."

  
  


Jazz nodded, "Good idea. It looks like we can't take a lot of damage from these weapons. Ready to take the elevator?" Bebop nodded, and then paused, examining the tank, before using his flight mode like a jet pack to reach the cockpit. 

  
  


It was definitely an earth mover, and probably too slow to be a weapon (besides, it wouldn't fit in the elevator), but Bebop was relieved to find that like many people, the Chimera operator had been snacking on the job. Bebop tossed down a few energy cartridges, "Drink up. This is a bit better than looting the corpses." Jazz nodded agreement. Besides the slight creepy feelings one got from going through dead mechanicals, these cartridges were typically bigger and had more energy than the temporarily stabilized versions from the last gasp of a robot's systems, drone or reploid. 

  
  


Partially recharged, the two pressed the buttons for the elevator. When it arrived, they were surprised to see Surge still tied up and quivering in the car. With a slice of her new beam saber, Jazz freed the fish-type Reploid. Surge said, "Thank you so much! I thought I was going to be the Hunters' next target!" 

  
  


Jazz asked, "Why are you still here, anyway? I figured they'd have taken you and split."

  
  


Surge said, "One would think so, but X and Zero from headquarters had wanted to go and see some 'historical robots'. They're possibly the two greatest hunters in the world. I mean, just recently, they stopped Repliforce, which Sigma had taken over, I mentioned Sigma right?" Jazz held up an impatient hand to the stream of consciousness.

  
  


"Easy there, guy. I doubt these two need any help, but we'll head up top and make sure they don't come back down," said Jazz. Surge nodded, and eagerly dashed out of the way. He was more than willing to sit tight and avoid combat. The two went into the elevator and hit the button. Jazz muttered as it closed, "You know, if you hadn't smashed some of your thrusters in, we could just fly up."

  
  


"Well, excuse me-" the rest of the conversation was cut off by the doors.

  
  


"Cute couple," commented Surge, before turning to the civilian model Metools and other drones standing around, along with several Reploids who had cowered on the sidelines during the fight. "All right, back to work people!" he bellowed.

  
  


Up top, X was worried. Sigma had been defeated, for at least the time being, just recently. That meant the Virus usually laid low for a while. But, this was the second incident of novice Hunters going maverick. Either some from the last uprising had managed to stay quiet and hidden through the Hunter's recruitment process, which was scary enough, or Sigma was trying to undermine the Maverick Hunters like he had Repliforce, which really worried X, since the paranoia from the idea that any Hunter could be infected would be more dangerous than if every Hunter was infected (then there would at least be a visible enemy.) 

  
  


Meanwhile, Zero was enjoying himself. Frankly, nothing like a good round of killing reploids to keep his mind off Iris. Nothing like the thrill of battle, though his current opponent was like an X who couldn't fight too well and wasn't wearing any armor and didn't have most of his sub tanks installed. This "Cutter" wasn't exactly the greatest Maverick threat, and Zero made a mental note to chastise whoever was in charge of this Reploid's training. 

  
  


X had it almost as easy, as he had kept his current weapons for the time being. He had unleashed a Nova Strike or two and had bashed this Orca down. When he had been captured in the tendrils, he used the soul body to have a double start blasting it. The Orca finally collapsed, and X froze it with a modified Frost Tower shot so he could take it back and figure out why a Hunter had gone Maverick. A quick shower of fusion particles meant Zero had finished off his opponent in his own special way: quickly.

  
  


The elevator dinged, and Zero and X moved to cover the elevator. Now, when two felinoid-style robots stepped out, hissing a little, guns held ready, the reaction is excusable. X and Zero had just finished going through an uprising, and Sigma's troops were typically-animal form, so on battle instinct, the two opened fire. Well, X opened fire. Zero just ran forward with a battlecry on his lips. In response, Jazz let loose with her new charged attack and a crazed yell. As Zero activated his fairly ordinary dash-saber attack, Jazz ignited twin beam sabers, one from each launcher, and parried with one. Caught by surprise, Zero barely ducked the second, and then Jazz crossed the blades and then swung them clear of each other quickly, hitting Zero with a wave of energy that blasted his shields down a bit. Jazz stood, battle fog clearing, and then quickly put her hands above her head, realizing who she had just hit.

  
  


Bebop had been wanting to try out his new weapon, and released the charged version. Bebop started to glow with energy. He was surprised as well when the force field didn't quite live up to expectation, and X's charged shot blasted him back, putting him to near zero on the energy meter. Bebop howled, ready to counter-attack, and leapt forward. X gasped as the real form of the charged attack made itself apparent: Bebop slammed into his victim and struck with claws that were charged with some serious energy, causing explosions with each touch of a clawtip. Once the immediate danger was past, Bebop starting thinking again.

  
  


"Oh my god, X! I'm sorry. Dr. Light really wouldn't want this," murmured Bebop in near panic. This had been a lousy day. Bebop held his hands up as well. 

Zero and X exchanged a glance in surprise. X, the more communication-oriented of the duo, asked, "Um, are you guys surrendering when you got an advantage? That's not exactly in the usual method of Maverick behavior."

  
  


Jazz said, "Zero, didn't Dr. Wiley tell you about me? I'm not a maverick," Jazz paused, considering her recent actions, "Well, not in the sense you guys mean it, recent berserker behavior notwithstanding. I'm your sister, Jazz!" Zero stared back blankly. Jazz muttered, "Uh, oh. Someone wiped his memory banks?"

  
  


Bebop, still having the remnants of a kinetic charge, stood still, saying quickly, "Hi, X, I'm on your basic design since Dr. Light wanted a battle version to help Rock out! Except he had me constrained a bit more tightly as a sort of brainwashing but you couldn't have both and the programming didn't take. Then I met Jazz here, not realizing who she was. Then Dr. Wiley attacked, and we beat one robot, but then we got shot down and then things got weird and we got hardwired to our support units," Bebop paused for breath, mainly to cool down his weapons, but also as a mannerism, and then said, "You have no idea what I'm talking about do I?" X shook his head. Dr. Light, he knows father, and father left him lying at the bottom of the river. When father intended my design for peace, he meant it!

  
  


X nodded, and said slowly, "Sorry about this, but we'll need to check you over at Headquarters. This is all a little fast, and we don't have restraints handy, at least for things with super-claws. Hang on!" X raised his blaster at the non-protesting reploids in front of him, and froze them from the neck down. 

  
  


Combined with the shots they had already taken, the freezing triggered their auto-repair, and all Jazz and Bebop saw for the time being was blackness.

  
  


To be continued!

  
  


Author's notes: Well, they're in the X universe now. Last part was my attempts to bridge continuity. Meanwhile, we've got a couple mysteries to deal with: Are Bebop and Jazz free of the Maverick Virus? Why are Hunters turning Maverick? Will Jazz and Bebop get less silly names? 

  
  


Notice I started referring to Bebop and Jazz as reploids. Technically, they are the first, since Wiley and Light based them on their designs for X and Zero. 

  
  


Title comes from the cat-like characteristics imparted to the first reploids by having their brains wired into a reasonably intelligent cat for forty+ years. 

  
  



	5. Second Interlude: Necessary explanations

Interlude 2: Exposition Expo!: Or, the hows and whys of our characters (omake 1)

  
  


by Tremor3258

  
  


Capcom owns Megaman (and Rockman) X, and despite the occasional flaws, have made one of the best platformers ever.

Things are a bit depressing, so I thought I'd lighten it with a little humorous background piece on the current situation. Also, you can assume X, Zero, Dr. Cain and other ranking members of the Hunters got a similar briefing, but a bit more cut and dried.

  
  


Anyway, this one is in script format because most of it is just talking, explaining some background, and is really more of an 'omake' ( a non-continuity piece) than anything else in how it takes place. The information is in continuity, the packaging for said information isn't. Basically, it's to get a good idea of everyone's capabilities at this point in the story. Expect people to be out of character.

  
  


Scene opens upon an empty auditorium. It's quite large, with multi-tiered balconies and private boxes. However, instead of the traditional curtain, it has a large screen for a projector. 

A stage light turns on, but no one is on stage. It turns off, a few moments past, and it turns on again

  
  


Tremor (running lights) : What's going on out there!

  
  


Zero(whispering) : You know, someone has to go out there and lecture, or Tremor is going to quote: Mary Sue the hell out of Jazz and Bebop; end quote and reduce us all to janitors.

  
  


Dr. Cain (whispering) : I haven't even shown up in the story yet, why should I do it?

  
  


Zero (whispering) : Well, like I actually pay attention to what makes reploids WORK?

  
  


Dr. Cain (loudly) : Good point! (whispering) oops.

  
  


slight smacking sound, as if metal lightly on the back of an elderly skull, followed by a clanging sound by metal on metal

  
  


X (whispering) : will you two knock it off? Luckily for you, I managed to find someone to do this for us.

  
  


Zero (interested whispering) : Really, who?

  
  


X (whispering) : Easy, he's one of the characters Capcom added into the fifth game, and Tremor is trying to set up for some of the changes in between the two games, so get out there buddy, and make us proud.

  
  


Lifesaver, a tall, green and white robot wearing the old style parabolic reflector doctors used to wear, is shoved out on screen by X, Zero, and Dr. Cain. The trio then run out and take seats in the audience

  
  


Lifesaver : Well, I'm glad to make my pre-introduction to the fanfiction in such an abrupt manner glares at the trio in the audience, who act like they don't notice. To plug myself: I'll be appearing in normal continuity as one of the new medical officers the Hunters have hired.

  
  


Tremor (irritated in general) : Get on with it already! Most people are going to start skipping to the next chapter any time now!

  
  


Lifesaver : Oh, right. flips an internal remote, and the screen comes on. It displays Jazz and Bebop, front and side profile, in their current forms, which are, for the record, humanoid robots, slightly hunched over with claws on feet and hands (retractable). Jazz is brown and tan, and built along female lines. Rhythm's lion-like head has split into two and rests on her shoulders, and much of the rest of the body has folded up into a jetpack. Bebop is slightly taller, black with green accents in the lighter regions, and has Staff primarily resting on his back. Staff's old shoulder cannons are mounted at waist level, and two wing-like projections serve as stabilizers and maneuverability thrusters. ). Jazz and Bebop were found recently following the Repliforce-Maverick Hunters War, the details of which were covered in X4. However, this is a slightly alternate universe, in that the data from each robot was collected and granted to both of them, giving Zero and X full access to each technique, and X access to the complete Force armor. 

  
  


X and Zero cheer on their awesome power (well, X is out of character), while Lifesaver switches to a montage of scenes from X4 

  
  


Lifesaver: Also, Zero faced Iris and Colonel, sadly killing them both as they were led with no apparent way out into opposite sides of the conflict, as X dealt with the traitorous Double, one of the few actual maverick Mavericks dealt with, as Sigma had manipulated all sides into coming to blows, and almost managed to destroy humanity using Repliforce's weapon systems. The two teamed up to deal with Sigma and the General. Several weeks passed when Jazz and Bebop were found. Sigma is apparently destroyed, again, for the fourth, or eighth or ninth time, depending if you count bodies or apparent total destruction. He's probably still around lurking in Virus form.

  
  


Lifesaver switches the picture to a tiny, insect like robot. The scale indicates its only a few microns in size

  
  


Lifesaver: Nanomachines, like this one here, are the core portion of our auto-repair system, dealing with impact wounds as our shielding systems help deal with energy bolts. Reploid shield systems power both defense and fusion containment, when the shields collapse, unless auto-shutdown is hit very quickly, the reploid tends to blow up. The Maverick Virus also, in the story anyway, has a couple forms. 

  
  


Switch to file footage of good old Doctor Wiley

  
  


The original form, created by the late, mad doctor here, was simply an extremely powerful computer virus, and Wiley had programmed in some nifty infection routines, like one that was carried along with weapon data on a variable weapon system, which is how both Jazz and Bebop got infected for a small period back in the days of Megaman. The virus's intended purpose was to allow a robot to simply fight far beyond where any reasonable limit would be to shut down, effectively giving the thinking and randomness of a intelligent, decision making robot, with the sheer stubborness and fighting fury of a drone. As a plus, the virus could be used to take control of simpler machines. Wiley didn't quite have it finished when Bass got affected, and it tended to cause merely a murderous rage.

  
  


Scene of Jazz and Bebop, lying down with apparently massive migraines

  
  


Luckily, Light and Wiley both anticipated something like this, and the two did manage to become aware of the effects in time to delete most of the virus. Though it isn't known to any but Jazz and Bebop in the main story, parts of the virus did manage to affect their personality programming before it was caught, and during the period in 'hibernation' it's become a core part of their programming. More on the effects of this later.

  
  


Scene of giant Sigma head. X, Cain, Zero, and Tremor boo and hiss

  
  


Lifesaver: Here's a continuity branch as well. It's not really important, but should be noted: While Zero was built to deal with the Virus, he wasn't infected with it originally. Sigma picked up the chip with the Virus on it and was infected. Zero, busy keeping people away from his home at the time, Sigma and Zero battled. Sigma, equipped with a beam saber, was able to take Zero out, though Zero did just as well as Sigma claimed in his little falsehood. Zero was then rebuilt and repaired by Dr. Cain into the superrobot of today. Why did Sigma lie: Because by attacking Zero's confidence, Sigma increased the chances of Zero losing and being infected later. You'll notice Sigma does these mind games a lot in the X games, like setting up a false anti-virus just to grab a lot of reploids at once. 

  
  


Anyway, Zero's control chip and memory board were damaged in the course, and Sigma, busy dealing with the affects of the Virus, said this was the Maverick, but Zero awoke with no memory, and apparently was a well-adjusted Reploid post-repair, though built for battle. I assume for non-Viral Mavericks, the usual method was to try and take them in, and probably give them counseling, jail-time, or probably (sadly enough), memory erasures, putting a new personality in the old body. Zero decided to work for the Hunters, since he was equipped, and wanted to help atone for apparent past sins.

  
  


Meanwhile, Sigma's systems were taken over by the virus, and modified his auto-repair system into the current nano-virus form. (Which is why in X5, when Sigma's blown up early on, the virus is air-bursted over much of the planet). Sigma himself mutated into almost the Virus, a destroyer, and to help make it easier, flamed his resentments at the prejudice Reploids suffered from. 

  
  


Tremor (from catwalk, loudly) : Why did I put this in? Simple: I like Zero to much to make him Typhoid Zero. Still, on 21XX justice systems, yikes! Well, memory erasure for assault? A human gets five years, robots get the Stepford Reploid

  
  


. Dr. Cain mutters acknowledgment, X, Zero, and Lifesaver are careful to say nothing. 

  
  


Lifesaver : Anyway, Sigma then went and infected most of the other Elite Hunters with his little improved nano-version. This also explains why anti-viruses are so hard to develop, as not only is the CPU and core personality infected, the very body will reinfect itself, as the auto-repair has modified itself.

  
  


Switches to 'before' and 'after' pictures of Jazz and Bebop, pre and post hibernation

  
  


Lifesaver pleased at how well this segued That's a good mention to describe what happened to Bebop and Jazz during their period under the river. Most of this is confirmation of the guesswork I'll be engaging in 'off-camera' into between last part and the next one. Bebop and Jazz were affected by the early version of the Virus, or at least the core berserker program. Trying to flee to less-patrolled areas, it traveled over the data connections to Staff and Rhythm, who were currently in their Adapter (flight + weapon power-up) forms. However, as there was two-way traffic flow over the datalink in their dream state, Rhythm and Staff's non-sentient programs were gradually absorbed into the sentient purposes as stronger data-connections and correlations are one of the housekeeping duty Reploid sleep takes care of. This lends itself especially when the higher-level reasoning functions are brought down slightly by drowsiness, nervousness, or the Reploid-equivelent of adrenaline in battle, leading to cat-like mannerisms. 

  
  


Due to the now-current existence of one-mind, the armor on both Reploids modified itself slightly. It now became one piece, and other improvements were made. The duo now have full flight capability for up to five minutes before needing to recharge. Also, minor errors in efficiency and such were corrected, so with the increased weapons-power offered by their armor and former support units, Jazz and Bebop got weapon charging ability (two levels) and four-charge levels on their original weapon systems. 

  
  


Shots of Jazz (original) firing one missile, then one from both wrist ports, and then four missiles from her shoulder and wrist ports. Then it flashes to kitty-Jazz shooting missiles from all four old ports, and four from ports on the jetpack Each has a numeral beside it for the charge level, going up the scale with more firepower

  
  


We then got a shot of Bebop (original) shooting green laser from one cannon, then two cannons, and then blue shots from both cannons. Kitty-Bebop shoots purple energy from those standard arm cannons, plus the two waist cannons (this follows standard Megaman energy progression for charging levels, green, blue, purple) 

  
  


Lifesaver (seriously) : However, one must remember their systems are forty years out of date. As evidenced by X's standard X-buster still being quite potent, weapon systems haven't advanced a great deal, and the two are still at least average in that area for firepower. Their main lack in such a way is the fact that they use specialized weapon systems that deal increased damage either with kinetics (missiles) or energy (particle streams) rather than plasma that does moderate amounts of damage to all items. 

  
  


Quick shot of nifty-blueprint lookalike on Jazz and Bebop. Shows major circuit boards, fusion reactor, etc. I wish I could draw one!

  
  


But, their armor and defense systems are seriously outmatched by current standards, so weapons do a lot more damage than expected to them. Also, they don't have dash thrusters. Bebop mimicked a dash by using his jets, but he wrecked the jet pack.

  
  


The only reason they're alive at all in current story time is due primarily to the berserker features of the Maverick Virus, which is activated by the battle-type programming left over in what was Staff and Rhythm's memories. However, despite the increased power this gives, it also means that they put several months of wear and tear on their systems in only a few moments. Obviously, after a few battles, they'd start shutting down from systems failure, and their opponents only need to get lucky a few times. Jazz and Bebop need to get lucky all the time. However, there are ways to deal with this, and it's possible that the capsule might give them some overdue birthday presents. 

  
  


Switch to close up of torso regions, sub tanks overlay, but there is only enough space for two

  
  


Lifesaver: Instead of the usual four sub-tanks, Jazz and Bebop only have space for two, since their systems were equipped to handle Energy Tanks as well as Sub-tanks, as Dr. Light or Wiley hadn't finished designing the additional system yet, but wanted the options to still be there. They can still equip heart tanks normally. 

  
  


Switch to schematics of X and Zero (I think Sigma's room in 5 and similar sketches

  
  


Lifesaver : A pressing question at the time is: What exactly is the relationship of the two Reploids to X and Zero, despite the professed claims of the Reploids to be brother and sister? Let's take a look.

  
  


Four way split screen! Bebop and X (no armor) next to each other with Jazz and Zero (next to each other). Each 'generation' is next to each other, X and Bebop in the top row

  
  


Lifesaver: Bebop and Jazz look very similar, due to having extremely similar functions. Zero was designed to be the perfect warrior, and Jazz is a watered-down version of the same, without dash thrusters or as much armor. Jazz is also Wiley's possible ONLY female design because Wiley wanted to also use her to give Bass something a bit stronger to fight for. That's right, Wiley was nasty enough to I guess try and get Bass to do a reverse-Iris. 

  
  


Bebop is a version of X, with more preprogrammed locks on his behavior. Those were eliminated, and Bebop doesn't mention them, as he wasn't supposed to be self-supportive enough to do that. Since Light built Bebop while Wiley was still a factor (X was intended for after the natural death of Wiley, after which the problems would probably cease.) Bebop in base form was a heavier armed and armored version. Since X wasn't a war design, Jazz and Bebop are about equal in those departments, one boosted as a warrior, the other weakened from her model.

  
  


Due to Jazz and Bebop being an interim design, they did get the support units that are similar to the original Megaman and Bass, which serves in a similar role to really the X1 or X2 armor for both, without so much stamina. (with the not-yet-completed Falcon armor as well). 

  
  


Scene of Jazz doing a terra burst, Zero doing an ice saber stab, X and Bebop launching big blasts in separate shots

  
  


Differences to be noted between the two are as followed. X and Bebop seem to rely mainly on copies of the weapon systems of the robots they faced. Jazz seems to be picking up attacks more similar to techniques. Unlike Zero, Jazz can access more powerful (and usually more dangerous to herself) versions of techniques by charging up extra energy, such as using a double beam saber slash followed by a long-range attack. However, most of these leave herself more open to damage, like the charged version of the Terra Burst involves her slamming herself into an opponent to soak up more damage, followed by her blasting at close range, and then using that energy splash from the radiation to fire a second burst. Obviously, Jazz is a bit woozy afterwards...

  
  


Scenes of the cute capsule system, X getting various upgrades (where DO I get this file footage?)

  
  


Tremor : Move back to the series background! Tell them about the capsules.

  
  


X, Zero and Dr. Cain (similar to the nuns in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", or, in creepy unison) : "Yes, tell us about the capsules, the capsules!"

  
  


Lifesaver (unamused): Always of note is the capsule system. With Bebop being very similar to the X design, and Jazz being closer than Zero, there is a possibility that when they enter battle in this time that capsules could appear. 

  
  


We know very little about how the capsules operate. They evidently have an artificial intelligence program based on Dr. Light's personality, judging by the fact that greater enhancements have been made to X. Without an ability to take a capsule and examine it, that's all we may know. We do know the capsules seem to come in a set of five, with four capsules each to a primary part (helmet, legs, weapons (arms), and torso). The fifth capsule generally has some sort of mega-upgrade that sends X's power beyond what anyone thought was possible up to that time. It should be noted that instead of a fifth capsule recently, there was another weapons capsule. It's possible the capsules are multiplying, or it's possible X missed one. (Which one? It's the Ultimate Armor code available, and the Armor upgrade available to the Force armor in X5)

  
  


Lifesaver looks through his notes That's all I've got for now guys. Thanks for letting me do this!

  
  


Tremor: You're welcome, but I'm not paying you.

  
  


Lifesaver: Rassing, frassing author .....

  
  


Lifesaver stomps off, stage left

  
  


Author's notes

  
  


Just another interlude (pretty long one actually), while I'm working on the next part. this gets a lot of stuff out of the way I wanted known, and wasn't sure how to do it besides long boring paragraphs. So, I just put all the long boring paragraphs in one place!

  
  


^_^

  
  


Anyway, that shows the few minor differences. X and Zero got all the weapons/techniques in the last game, and Zero wasn't the original carrier (judging by how nasty Sigma's version of the Virus is, I doubt it would have let old Zero go. I can see Sigma being cruel enough to tell Zero that his mysterious past was as the very thing he hunts down.

  
  


That's all for now.

  
  


Next time: Maverick Hunter Headquarters, and some answers. Plus, Zero and X try and deal with the deaths of friends, and various new staff. (In other words, enough of this stuff and back to some action!)

  
  



	6. Relics

Relics of the Past

  
  


by Tremor3258

  
  


Disclaimer: Capcom owns the setting, most of the backplot, and most of the characters. I'm just doing this because I enjoy this, not because I'm getting paid. 

  
  


Lifesaver, one of the recent new support staff to join the Hunters main base, was busy monitoring their new acquisitions power levels as S-level hunters X and Zero looked on in a smaller med bay in Maverick Hunters HQ. One, the first one captured, had definitely proven to be infected with the Maverick Virus, and was being taken to a secure, off-site holding facility so that he could be studied, and hopefully cured. The other two were being more of an enigma. They resembled old, archaic war robots from a bygone era, but they had fought beyond any drone in the far too-large experience of either Hunter. That made them Reploids, apparently, from alloy composition scans, as old as X, which was impossible, right? Plus, the design similarities of the female to Zero made him uncomfortable. X was used to dealing with the fact every thinking mechanical he met was based on his circuits, but Zero hadn't had that happen. The idea of being something that could be copied... Zero shook himself. Of course, even if they were based on his rather superior design, the personality would be determined by experience. Lifesaver had replaced most of the worn-out parts, and they were currently doing some careful scans.

  
  


Lifesaver shook his head as he watched superconducting magnets detect the tiny electrical fields that made up the Reploids' circuit boards, and he said in exasperation, "That's it! I give up!" The two Hunters looked over in astonishment; it was a surprising thing to hear a doctor say. Lifesaver clarified, "Listen, well X might understand this. Do you see these circuit paths?" X shrugged, there were literally millions of circuit paths inside a Reploid, no one was entirely familiar with all of them, due to most being mere copies of X's original. 

  
  


"Listen, this is, apparently, part of the support for their control chips, the part that determines personality. Unlike almost every Reploid, they actually have INTERNALIZED versions, instead of a gem covering up the chip, so it was really difficult getting this scan. That said, these pathways are a different design than normal, and these pathways HAVE to be a certain way as far as we know. It looks like a derivative of the design though, which is bizarre," Lifesaver said, "I mean, there was one thinking robot, and that was, well, you X. No one ever figured out another way to build these circuits, but they evidently work. Someone made some modifications. These new circuits seem to tie into some data chips that are inactive."

  
  


"Cut the hot air, doc. What does that mean?" asked Zero impatiently.

  
  


Lifesaver took a deep breath and continued, "Off hand, and I'd need to check with some experts to make sure, I'd say these were enslaved Reploids, with their program run through and moderated by those circuits, but they somehow managed to bypass them." If they had blood, the Hunters, and support staff, in the medbay would have run cold. The idea of literally being forced to behave in a way your designer wanted was contrary to the theory and ideals of Reploids. 

  
  


Iris, thought X with a twinge to his stomach as he thought of Zero's old companion, was close to that, but she managed to at least move beyond set plans at the end, what a way to do it though. Still, the idea of enforced behavior makes me think of one Reploid I'll be all too glad to vaporize if he shows up again. 

  
  


"Any idea of what the programming was, Lifesaver?" asked Zero sharply. 

  
  


Lifesaver shrugged helplessly, "I wish I knew. It could have been something to bypass aggressive impulses, or it could have been something to grant them. There circuitry is a mess, with linkages running all over the place. The flight abilities look like a recent addition, and someone didn't do a very clean job of hooking them up. It works, but it looks awfully sloppy. Still, I think I've managed to cut out their weapons for now, at least."

  
  


X nodded, "All right, let's activate them, and see if we can get some answers, on my authority," he ordered. Lifesaver logged the command and threw the switches that cut the two Reploids out of stasis mode. After a few seconds of low electrical-equipment sounds. The two's eyes flew open. X and Zero noted the slit eyes with interest, as it looked like a low-light adaptation, which combined with their somber color schemes seemed to indicate stealth operations.

  
  


After a moment, the two jumped in surprise, flipping to land on the beds they were on with a hint of thrust. Reflexively, X and Zero started to raise their weapons before X put his hand on top of Zero's saber, keeping it from igniting. X stepped forward carefully, "Hello there, how are you feeling."

  
  


The two paused a moment, and X got a hint of tightbeam radio activity before Jazz asked delicately, "You messed with our internals. Our weapons have been disabled," she finished in an accusing tone.

  
  


X said nervously, "We didn't know quite what to make of you at the time. But the construction foreman cleared a bit of it up for us, at least, you did take out one of the Mavericks for us. Can you clarify any statements you made?"

  
  


"Surge," said Bebop faintly, before continuing stronger as X and Zero looked at him, "His name is Surge. I assume he's all right by you using the present tense?" The two nodded, and Bebop continued, "We were told a little about you by Surge, since you two are evidently great heroes." Zero puffed out a little, and X looked down at the floor. Bebop continued, "Jazz and I know a little about you since we were designed as test beds for your technology, in order to see if the personalities of a decision-making robot would be stable before the fully armed and 'unlimited potential' versions were put into effect." X and Zero started at that, and Jazz hissed a little from the movement.

  
  


She blushed and explained, "Sorry, jumpy. Our programming got scrambled a bit. Did you find out about our flight packs?" The three nodded, and Jazz continued grimly, "They used to be, well, not 'Reploid' level, but still very smart, companions, but I guess to become the ultimate battle machine we became permanently linked. It led to a few modifications." Jazz gestured at her claws. Jazz said grimly, "It does sound like something Father would do, to allow us to take over something like that for our own gain."

  
  


Bebop spoke smoothly, "Doctor Thomas Light of course, the man who designed your circuitry and mine X, or should I say, big brother ?" Bebop's eyes barely flickered at the misdirection. Father for him and X meant Light, but Bebop wasn't sure how Wiley would be taken in this day and age.

  
  


X stared at the robot in shock. He doubted even Sigma could go to this sort of trouble of creating two ancient, X's lips quirked in a smile as he used a term so often thrown at him as an insult, robots. For that matter, the energy involved in burying them under thirty feet of mud, and then hiding the traces so well that the archeologist hired by New York swore on a sack of testaments to any deity you would name that it had been undisturbed since the mud was laid down.

  
  


Zero was interested for his friend's sake. Zero's own past was shrouded, and he wasn't aware of what he had done prior to joining the hunters and being repaired by Dr. Cain, and any attempt to fill in a gap in memory gave Zero hope for his own past. Zero asked, "Do you know anything about Light? X only knew what Dr. Cain, the man who found X, discovered alongside his capsule. Frankly, after the final Robot Rebellion, as it was so inaccurately named, there's quite a few blank spots in Light's history. After the death of Protoman," Zero paused due to being shouted down.

  
  


"Blues is dead?" yelled the two at dangerous levels. Lifesaver moaned in pain, and barely got an apologetic glance.

  
  


X took over the conversation and explained, "Apparently Wiley left some fail safes to be activated in the event of his demise. As a result, a large group of Robot Masters attacked New York. No one is sure who fought who, but Protoman was destroyed during battle, and Megaman received heavy damage. After that, there's little solid evidence, Megaman didn't appear in battle again, but there was little need. We don't know when or even if Megaman was deactivated, or buried in the volcano eruption that demolished Dr. Light's lab. Its damage means there's quite little we can actually piece together." X wouldn't admit it, but he envied the peace his older brother probably had in those final few years. 

  
  


"I'm sorry, but I don't know much. When we were active, Protoman was alive and whistling," commented Bebop. The black and green Reploid then said weakly, "Wait, the lab is gone?" X nodded sadly. Suddenly Bebop's eyes narrowed, as he hoped he found the discrepancy that would prove this all one massive hallucination from too much damage. "How did they find X if his capsule was buried under lava?" asked Bebop sharply. Zero noted that Bebop didn't think X's capsule wouldn't survive being buried under lava. Familial pride, wondered the reploid.

  
  


Lifesaver explained, "Prior to his current job of being one of our primary sources of funding and the person who deciphered X's circuitry, Dr. Cain was a noted archeologist. He was digging in the area and discovered Light's lab and X's capsule. I think you got the recap after that point," finished the doctor.

Jazz nodded in agreement and said weakly, "All this damage and destruction, over all these years. I can't believe that anyone would create something that horrible." Jazz was a warrior, and knew death and destruction came with the territory. Originally, she had fought for her father. As she grew, she had changed her mind, and flicked a shy glance at Bebop.

  
  


Zero saw it and felt sick. Iris... The Crimson Hunter knew he had to get out of the room know, or he'd break down, and probably get removed from duty for psychological counseling,, despite the fact duty was what he had yet, and his comrades in arms. Zero said suddenly, "Listen, I've got some paperwork to do. Unit 00 has a special level four training mission tomorrow, and there's a few little details to put into place." 

X asked drily, "Um, would these details include those new laser mines the weapon techs came up with?" Zero nodded in bloodthirsty agreement. As Zero left the room, X muttered to himself, "I'm glad he's on our side." Jazz found herself unpleasantly surprised at what X thought her auditory limits were. Did that mean they knew...? Then Jazz noticed X grinning and relaxed. She was glad for Bebop's distraction. If they regularly had regular stable robots attacking humans, then robots programmed for the job would not get a happy reception in this period. And Jazz felt a sense of loyalty to Zero, as he had chosen a course that seemed to hold honor despite whatever Wiley had planned. Jazz made a note to check up on Zero's current history.

  
  


Bebop seemed busy processing recent statements. "Is it possible to see the lab, at least for a little while? I'm trying not to go into denial here and it would help," he finished weakly. X looked over him sympathetically. X remembered his first few days waking up with little memory of the past, and now it seemed he had one with too much memory of the past. 

  
  


"Of course. Frankly, as commander of the 17th unit, I'd like to say Maverick Hunters Headquarters is open to all your needs for the time being. You're an important step in research against Mavericks. Afterall, you apparently aren't simply copies," X said, getting it out almost without bitterness. Lifesaver pretended not to notice. "But instead true new design. Researchers are going to want to check out the information we got. If it's possible to help create future stability, or designs that the Maverick Virus wouldn't recognize, then you two could do a lot of good for the world." X could only dream of a world without Mavericks, but he'd never dreamed of having living family. Who knew what could happen at this rate? 

  
  


X said kindly, "I have an idea of what you're going through, and I think the best thing now is to wait a little while. We're a little crowded right now, and I think we'd have to put you in one of our smaller trainee rooms as a double," Jazz and Bebop didn't say anything and X plunged ahead, "They've got net access and recharging bays. Not the most comfortable accommodations, but we have a glut of Reploids thinking they're Maverick Hunters. And I sent ahead for a few clothes to be sent ahead so you can change out of your armor." X checked his internal chronometer, flashed up in the corner of his eye, and said, "Tell you what, I'll give you sixteen hours to get some rest time in, and then I think we can tour Light's lab. I should warn you, most of it isn't there." The two nodded mutely. Dr. Light, famed researcher, creator of some of Earth's greatest heroes, lost his enclave to a mere force of nature. But then, with our own circumstances, it seems poetic, thought Bebop.

*************** Fifteen and a half hours later.

  
  


X groaned as he worked his way through the 'Paperworkhorn' as Zero tended to call it. With all the new hunters coming in, and the desperate struggle to get the Units up to full strength, it was even worse with all the bureaucratic reshuffling, especially with Repliforce gone. X noted absently that Dr. Cain had approved the use of Spotters, equipped with remote drones and sensitive electronics, to aid Hunters in combat. As if Zero and mine's experience versus the Soul Erasers didn't show how useful they could be. X thought back to those days, but they soon turned to his friend, as the spotter on that mission had been Iris, on a cross-training exercise with the Maverick Hunters. 

  
  


X thought about the situation. Psychologically, the situation was bad. Things had just started to settle down from Final Weapon's near attack on the Earth, and the folding of Repliforce assets into the Maverick Hunters. Now, novice Hunters were starting to go Maverick without rhyme or reason. Things had been contained so far, but there seemed to be a flaw in the psychological evaluation process. Not to mention two younger siblings completely lost in this world where thinking robots aren't unique, but common, and Zero is being ripped apart on the inside by Iris's death. X shuddered when he thought about what sort of hell Zero was putting his unit through currently to try and work past the grief. Then X smiled. The solution was obvious. Get Zero the hell out of the office for a few hours, even if he had to be dragged out by half the Hunters. 

  
  


"X to Zero, come in!" X could hear explosions over the radio signal and he realized with cold suddenness what he was hearing with the distinctive whir of heavy battle armor servos and the hum of a beam saber. "Oh my god, Zero, you're not running the new Repliforce scenarios are you?"

  
  


"What if I am?" said Zero defensively. X frowned. This was way worse than he thought if Zero was desperately trying to rewrite history, at least in his mind.

  
  


"Zero, old buddy, listen carefully," X said slowly, "You are probably the best soldier with a beam saber anywhere on the planet. You've done far more than anyone has expected of you throughout your time in the Hunters, and you've taught me almost everything I know about war and honor. That said, you did far better than anyone expected at saving Iris, and no one blames you for it."

  
  


"But I didn't save Iris," countered Zero frantically, "the station exploded and in all the chaos, Sigma managed to wipe out the memory records." 

  
  


X's eyes narrowed. Zero was giving him an opportunity if taken carefully, "Right, Zero. Sigma once again managed to screw over most of the planet, and the Maverick Hunters personally. Remember all the Hunters who suffered via Double? He wiped out their control chips. Nothing left to bring back. Zero, I saw you hold Iris in your arms."

  
  


"And damn it, X! There was absolutely nothing I could do to save her!" yelled Zero in exasperation. For several minutes, there was quiet over the radio, before Zero said softly, "You bastard. You wanted me to say it, didn't you?"

  
  


"Yes, frankly. Zero, I know what you're going through. I had friends in the Hunters too before Sigma attacked for the first time, and I was there for your funeral," X's voice shook at that. Watching a close friend and mentor die in your arms still affected him, despite working with said friend on a daily basis. "I know its really bad, and I've felt if I had been more prepared, maybe I could have stopped things, and I go over every little mistake in my mind all the time. That's natural. That said, it's not natural to act out your lover's final moments in a futile attempt to save her. You can't rescue ghosts, Zero," finished X softly. "Now, are you going to come out into the sunshine? Iris wouldn't want you to rip yourself apart mourning her, Zero." 

  
  


"This is about those two with the silly names right?" asked Zero, before he finished disgustedly, "All right, I'll come on your field trip. But I'm not going to enjoy it," snapped Zero as he finished.

  
  


"That went well," remarked X, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Then a timid knocking came at his door. "Come in!" yelled X. Between friends and family, all I need are coworkers bugging me.

  
  


Jazz and Bebop stood in the door, fully armored, looking a bit scared. X stood up in shock before babbling slightly, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was another piece of paperwork coming at me." X gestured at his desk in bemusement. Then X commented, "Sorry I snapped, but you guys can step out of your armor now."

  
  


Bebop looked down at his feet and said in a breathy tone, like he was about to break down and bawl, "Actually, while we think we can do that, we're worried about our support units. We may be able to save their minds yet, and severing their circuitry from ours may finish them off for good." 

  
  


X blinked, he had heard about Rush, of course, but never met the robodog. He said brightly, "I suppose you know best, but we'd better get you some coats. The public is a little antsy about Reploids running around with obvious heavy firepower." The two nodded mutely, and X placed a radio call to supply, and two fashionable jackets appeared, and some sunglasses. They made the two look a bit fat, and Bebop's shoulders appeared huge due to his wings, and the sunglasses looked a bit silly, but covered the pupils. The two looked at each other without seeming to see. "Now, don't laugh," chided X. That managed to get at least a light chuckle.

  
  


With a mental thought, X warped over into jeans and a long shirt, his armor being stored in the Maverick Hunter's armory. A moment later, Zero, sans armor, teleported in to the doorway as well, sticking his Z-saber into his pocket, out of courtesy outside of X's office, looking at the others a bit brusquely, "X, do you have the teleport coordinates to this place?" X nodded, and passed it over in a burst of data. 

  
  


Bebop and Jazz had their old teleport units still installed and functional, and joined the others as mindless beams of light, before striking down in a relatively flat, rather brownish looking grass field. Narrowing his eyes, though the sunglasses seemed to be interfering with his long-range vision, Bebop could see a small structure a small distance away. X explained, "It's usually a bad idea to drop down into the middle of crowds, and the whole point of dressing like this is to not attract attention. Walking up is generally a better idea." The other three nodded in agreement. X smiled, "I haven't been here for years..." Zero, however, was already stomping off. The others followed, though Bebop and Jazz felt an odd moment when they weren't sure to go on all fours or upright.

  
  


X paying for the tickets at Zero's insistence ("It's your baby pictures we're looking for"), the four stood in line, and were quickly admitted to the lab ruins. Balconies and ropes girded off sensitive areas. Jazz was amazed the place was so intact, but Bebop saw the ruins and were wordlessly ticking them off.

  
  


"Here's the living room, the kitchen's out of sight over there. Dad used to like to doodle up circuit patterns after breakfast. Roll liked to make waffles. Did they ever find them?" X shook his head. "Must have self-destructed at Light's death, or something," muttered Bebop. It made a certain amount of sense. With all the difficulty Light had with his robots being reprogrammed, the idea of his faithful family being turned against humanity probably curdled his stomach. 

  
  


Zero, probably trying to help, mentioned, "They were just robots, really." No one said anything. "Guys, speak to me?" Jazz was tracing the damage and clucking, X was on a nostalgia trip, and Bebop... wasn't quite there. Zero looked more closely at the Reploid. He looked like he was listening to something. After a moment, the Reploid's face cleared, and he suddenly vaulted the low barrier as they walked into the lab area, with the most exhibits, and the opened version of X's capsule. Bebop started running towards the capsule. Jazz jumped immediately after. After a moment's hesitation, X followed.

  
  


"Hey, you can't go in there!" shouted a security reploid. Zero, the only one on the other side, blocked the reploid, stating coldly, "Hunter's business." Zero casually withdrew his distinctive saber. The security guard's eyes widened, but stopped his protests. Zero followed the others. Meanwhile, flashes were going off from the other tourists in the area.

  
  


"Bebop, what on earth is going on?" yelled X in frustration as Bebop just stopped looking around.

  
  


"Father's here! I can feel him!" Bebop said wildly. And then he pointed down. Apparently on cue, a rumbling filled the broken and damaged lab center, and then a large blue upgrade capsule dug its way out of the ground, a large drill mounted on its top. The blue shield retracted, leaving a holographic image behind of Dr. Light. Even more flashes started to go off.

  
  


"Hello Bebop," said the Doctor kindly, and then he turned, "Hello X, as well. Looking well, I see." X nodded wordlessly, this was a bit better conversation than most capsules. Dr. Light seemed to squint, "Let's see. From data I got from Wiley's robots and X's memory from the other capsules, I'd have to say that probably Zero and Jazz are with you, correct?" Jazz and Zero raised hands in response. 

  
  


Dr. Light's hologram quickly tapped together a pipe and lit it, "Nasty habit. Don't start," commented the researcher before his expression grew stern, "Bebop, I need to ask a question, have you been briefed at all on X's activities in this time?" Bebop nodded, and Dr. Light continued, "Good. This is the central capsule for the upgrade system, responsible for maintenance and creation of the data matrix that is uploaded to X's system to create his armor sets. Obviously, for security reasons, this capsule will relocate itself to an undisclosed location. X, don't worry, the next time it is necessary to fight, your capsules will be ready." X was of mixed feelings on this, evidently. 

  
  


Dr. Light continued, "Bebop, Jazz, I can understand some of the problems you're going through, and I've set this capsule to work for both of you, once I discovered you were likely alive. I apologize for what I did to you Bebop, and for what those plans meant for Jazz. It took years to realize that what I did to your systems was wrong, and I can only hope you've shown the strength to rise past that." Dr. Light smiled. Heart to heart evidently out of the way, time for the toys.

  
  


"However, I did package a special upgrade armor into this unit, based off the information I received from the downed Robot Masters. It's been modified over the past few weeks since your transponders activated in order to fit your current needs. It's not going to put you on X, or Zero's level by any means, but it is my final gift to you. Due to limitations in the capsule system, I do not know at this time whether or not you'll ever get another one. I believe I can help deal with the psychological damage to your system involving your pets." Jazz and Bebop brightened. Dr. Light warned, "Step into this capsule to receive a data download for a new armor set. It won't quite fit your systems, since its been modified for your two's general design, so I suggest you enter a sleep cycle so the armor can achieve final fitting. It comes equipped with improved defenses, scanners, and dash thrusters, besides the effects on your support units. My final advice to any others who may be here: Search and aid others and yourself to find unique paths through life, and you won't have the sins I've caused on my soul. My final warning is that attempts to enter or study this capsule will result in the capsule's departrue." With that, Dr. Light's hologram disappeared, leaving a nice shiny upgrade capsule. 

  
  


Zero asked Bebop softly, "What did he mean by that bit about stains?"

  
  


Jazz said, "I assume he means the hard-wiring into Bebop's systems of setting him on the path of a fighter, and then the death of his oldest 'son', Protoman, if what we've been told is correct. He escalated the level, and it escalated back at him." 

  
  


Bebop took a deep breath and held a hand out to Jazz, "Shall we?" Jazz nodded, and Bebop stepped in, dropping the coat and glasses. The crowd gasped at the rather bizarre shape. With a sudden crackle of energy, Bebop disappeared from view. When he returned, he looked slightly modified, with a helmet design more similar to X's with a blue gem set into the front. Bebop took a deep breath and said, "The armor's in data form, but my systems should be able to modify it, it's kind of a template. Jazz, hurry, I don't think the capsule is going to stay much longer." Jazz, eager to see Rhythm again, jumped in, shedding overcoat and glasses in the process. After another blinding crackle of energy, Jazz emerged with a grey gem set in her forehead. "That is weird." As soon as she stepped down, the capsule blinked away, warping to some spot, to repair for the next battle against the Mavericks. 

  
  


By this point, the crowd, having gathered upon hearing some activity, and seeing some heroes of the Maverick Hunter, were in danger of knocking down the barricades. After a quick silent communication, the four warped back to headquarters, landing in X's office. After making quick excuses, Jazz and Bebop set off to be reunited. X rubbed his forehead in exhaustion. Zero leaned against the wall and asked, "So, learn anything?"

  
  


X looked up at Zero in amusement, though tiredness was starting to cloud his features from an emotionally draining day, "Yes. The more I learn about father, the more I realize no one knows anything about him. He's placed on a pedestal, but that's not where he put himself at all. If anything, that probably makes him deserve a higher pedestal." 

  
  


Zero nodded, and wandered off, "Well, I've got training to do." Evidently feeling X's glare burning at his head, he turned around quickly and said, "Remember, level-4 simulation? Get our hunters in line so they don't kill themselves, and prevent future mistakes, since we do tend to beat ourselves up about the past ones, huh?" said Zero with a trace of bitterness. "Good night X, I'll see you tomorrow." X waved blearily as Zero closed the door. He'll be back to what passes for him as normal, eventually. At least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

  
  


Bebop and Jazz literally flew into their recharging bays. It was a bit difficult to arrange oneself in the narrow beds with the jet packs, but they managed, and shut down into stasis mode so fast they could see the darkness pooling in front of their eyes. 

  
  


Except the darkness didn't leave. Bebop and Jazz suddenly found themselves in a weird void space, filled with dark mist. "You know, I really hope that was actually an upgrade capsule," commented Jazz. Then she looked more closely through the mist at herself and Bebop, "Look! We're back in the old armor!" So they were, no claws or jetpacks in sight.

  
  


"Not even the control gems," remarked Bebop. Suddenly, through the mists came a sudden meowing. Exchanging a look, the two started running in a direction, calling on their pets. 

After a moment, the mists cleared, showing an ethereal version of the pets, but they were simply watching something on a portal that was sideways. Turning to look at it, Jazz and Bebop were surprised to see their view of the final few shots with their status report, showing energy levels, pasted on it. Bebop pointed out, "Hey, isn't that the old energy meter for how long we could use the Adapters?" Jazz nodded, it had been awhile, but Staff and Rhythm had their limits, before being tied in better to the fusion reactors of their partners.

  
  


Everything went dark, and the main energy gauge for each Reploid started to slowly climb. However, the Adapter energy level was dropping. As it did, the pets were gradually getting dimmer. Jazz surmised, "We weren't doing anything with them: did they get damaged in battle?" Staff turned and nodded her head. Suddenly, a schematic for Staff's jetpack mode showed up on the viewing area rather than blackness, showing red dots around the leading edges, where Jazz's body hadn't been to block Islandman's shot. Rhythm twitched his tail, and the schematic did the same, the wings looked especially bad, half-melted off.

  
  


"I see where this is going," said Bebop grimly, "You couldn't repair yourselves in that form, so you tied into our auto-repair systems, didn't you?" Rhythm nodded in agreement.

  
  


Jazz continued, "So, they were in our system, we were receiving status reports, and things just moved together. I'm still not quite sure it makes sense."

  
  


"It doesn't," rang out Dr. Light's voice, before the holographic version appeared above the fading pets. "There main computer cores were damaged, they leapt to you to try and fix it, and coexisted. But the current situation can't continue for them. With the way your programming is now, it's unstable." He pointed at the two fading animals, "Choose," commanded Light, a bit morosely.

  
  


Bebop, a little quicker at this sort of thing, knelt down besides Staff, "It was your choice, wasn't it? You could have shut down, but you wanted to be with us, and you wanted us to fight, so you helped us out some, but now our barriers are breaking down." Staff meowed softly, and Rhythm purred in agreement. Bebop shook himself, "You know what we have to do, right Jazz?" 

  
  


Jazz had tears in her eyes as she hunched over by Rhythm. "Yes. If we separate, there's nowhere for them to go, and they're so much junk code. With us in balance, our behaviors becoming more and more erratic on the outside. I'm so sorry, but I'm glad to know you're still really here." Jazz said softly, before she reached her hand out to her pet, and first friend. Rhythm grabbed the hand with a paw, and seemed to flow up into Jazz. When it was done, Jazz stood up, shaking herself. When she opened her eyes, they now had the slit form, and Bebop could see fangs.

  
  


"Listen, Staff. You were a good friend to me all these years, and I know I'd be dead if it wasn't for you. I'm glad you're still fighting for me, even if I thought you were dead." Staff purred, and then the door seemed to flow into each other. Bebop stood up, cat's eyes and fangs.

  
  


Dr. Light smiled, "I'm glad you chose the way you did. There eventual goal was to become close and serve as assistants, becoming like extensions of your will. They accelerated the process and changed the final result, instead becoming portions of your will. Your auto-repair systems are currently upgrading you to your new armored forms. And once again, I wish you'd have had a chance to live out your lives in the present, happily, without fear of recrimination from either me or my colleague, and I hope you can here in this time." The hologram faded out, and the mist started to leave, which seemed to make things blurrier.

  
  


Jazz said, a bit quickly, "I feel... very strange."

  
  


Bebop agreed, "I know. It's not just in combat, I can feel him throughout my mind." Bebop seemed to focus inward, "But he's there now, and active, not just portions of his code or memory."

  
  


Jazz said quietly, fading out, "I think Staff would be happy this way, really getting to know you."

  
  


Bebop corrected, "I know Staff is happy, which tends to make me feel better about it, and I know you and Rhythm, well, you, feel the same. I wish there had been another way." Jazz murmured agreement as the rest of the shared vision cancelled out. Most of the rest of the dreams for the night involved giant piles of catnip.

  
  


Upon the next morning, in the recharging bay area, the two awoke about the same time and jumped out of the bays. The closets, mainly with workout clothing X managed to find around base, had mirrors, and the two inspected themselves. Bebop's wings, helmet, arms and legs were now primarily blue, with black serving as the secondary color in the area with more flexible armor. Green trimmed the various sections of improved armor.

  
  


Jazz now had smoky grey armor, with brown serving as the secondary color, and red as the trim. Jazz said softly, "Ready to try the acid test?" Bebop nodded, and the two concentrated. The armor warped off, assembling itself, like an old knight's armor shell, off to the side in the room, leaving the two wearing the rather ragged t-shirts and shorts they'd been wearing so many years ago. The two sighed in relief, and both purred for a moment. 

  
  


Jazz said in delight, "The headache's gone, and the code isn't just baggage anymore. I can feel Rhythm."

  
  


Bebop stretched lazily for a moment, "Definitely. The best of a lousy list of options. So now that we have full-time integration with our partners, what do you want to do?"

  
  


Jazz said immediately, "Curl up into bed, go to sleep, and hope to wake up back home. If that doesn't work, I'll think of something." Bebop quickly agreed and the duo dropped down for the rest of a recharge cycle after a very long span without decent sleep, some of their ghosts soothed.

  
  
  
  


To be continued

  
  
  
  


Author's notes:

  
  


Long, long part!!! If you've managed to stick it out this far, I hope you liked it. Because, honestly, this is one of my weaker works. I have trouble writing angst, and this one was a bit angsty, but I needed to deal with some of the X4 plotline baggage. Reviews always welcome!

  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  



	7. Induction Part 1

Induction (Part 1 of 3):

  
  


by Tremor3258!

  
  


Disclaimer: Don't own Megaman, for my own enjoyment, see other disclaimers for more details....

  
  


A few months had passed now since the Repliforce incident, and things were starting to get into a more normal groove at Headquarters. Integration of old Repliforce staff into the Maverick Hunters was going very slowly, due to the lengthy background checks and medical examinations Dr. Cain had authorized. It hadn't been his idea, but since Repliforce had been a pawn of Sigma's latest scheme, public sentiment was rather against Repliforce members, and the public's peace of mind meant Repliforce's discomfort. Most accepted it, due to the only way to erase the stain on their honor was to serve against Mavericks, and currently, the Hunters were the only game in town for Maverick-bashing.

  
  


Zero, slowly, started to move past Iris's death, in the sense he stopped fighting his final mission with her over and over. Still, he was a bit more withdrawn than before, and specialized in creating new scenarios to bedevil the Hunters' training missions, and Zero became an expert at spotting holes in Headquarters security, leading to weakly memos starting with "And this is our week's prayer to your deity of choice that Zero is on our side.." Still, if Zero tended to make the Hunters more cautious in their actions and his name a curse word on their lips in general, he was far worse to his own Unit. Zero was ruthlessly removing the dross from Unit 00, what little there was of it. If the special hit-and-fade teams of Unit 00 had been feared before, these stealthy assassin-Hunters made being Maverick far more of a losing proposition than ever before. In his small amounts of spare time, Zero was either bugging X or bugging Jazz about what she mentioned about 'design similarities', but Jazz had clammed up, pleading glitches from her hibernation.

  
  


X, hero of the Uprisings, was swamped with paperwork, as his Unit was more open and larger than 00, and the 17th's elite status meant it was swamped with transfer requests. Not to mention X had volunteered to help the Repliforce members settle into the Hunters out of a sense of guilt, and now the amount of work involved there threatened to avalanche off his desk and swallow his office, especially with the difficulty of reconstructing damaged records after the battle. 

  
  


As if deciding who was a Repliforce officer and who was a very clever Maverick wasn't hard enough, there were still occasional sets of new Hunters suddenly, and apparently spontaneously going Maverick. X had half the administrative corps working overtime to do background checks, and Signas, a young Reploid in charge of the training process, had the other half of the administrative corps tracking down similarities between the various Hunters who had gone Maverick. So far, all Signas's overworked clerks had found was that the more military-capable of the new Hunters were going Maverick, and most were young and only recently assembled. So far, the old Repliforce staff was clean.

  
  


Jazz and Bebop, mental stability increased with a cat's ability to always look towards the positive (food!), had spent quite a bit of their time being surveyed by the Hunters medical staff, and probably a few pieces of their circuitry were going to end up in the next generation of Reploids. For that matter, the effectiveness of the armor to enhance their systems meant support units were being seriously considered for the Hunters, though Bebop and Jazz were objecting on moral grounds of creating war dogs that probably would be put down. X was of two minds: he had seen Velguarder, Sigma's old pet in action. On one hand, Velguarder was a ruthless killing machine, and pointed at the Mavericks had done a lot of damage. On the other hand, Velguarder was a ruthless killing machine, and the odds of simply wiping the First Law from such a thing's data banks gave X nightmares of the First Uprising.

  
  


Still, the medical staff had, as Jazz had put it, "Squeezed about all the blood from these turnips." Jazz and Bebop had little to do but sit there for the tests, and had first watched modern TV after there history lessons were done to catch up their linguistic files to modern slang. After they withstood far more daytime television than X had thought possible, the two had settled into catching up on classic literature with a sense of relief. 

  
  


X frowned as his thoughts continued about his siblings, as most among the base dubbed them, to X's slight dismay. That, of course, only served to make sure more people used the phrase. He had recently come across two particular applications to join the 9th Unit, a special forces/unique terrain group in the Hunters from two very special relatives. X had to admit, after seeing them in action that they'd do rather well in the Hunters, but the fact that they seemed to accept their viable career path was through a quasi-military organization depressed X, as it wasn't really their war as much as X's, with his various rebellious 'children'. Still, what worried X more was that they were in the profile for suddenly going Maverick after completing training, and X had tried his best to push back the issue. Still, it was coming to a head. The two were to start training tomorrow.

  
  


Meanwhile, a pink-armored humanoid female reploid, short blond hair visible as she had her helmet off, was lost. Which was pretty depressing to Alia, considering one of the main features that had called the Hunters' attention and convinced them to sign her as a trainee was an excellent sensor system and amazing abilities to handle and analyze multiple sets of data at the same time. 

  
  


Now, instead of being near her quarters, she was apparently in the medical wing, which was apparently deserted at this time of the day. Well, it was near lunch, and except for the critical care ward, most of the staff was in the commissary. Alia jumped in surprise as she heard a horrible ripping noise. Pinpointing it was a snap, and she ran towards the particular room, arm morphing into a blaster. She took a deep breath and opened the door, firing as she did, and hit a frisbee with a lot of electricity, causing it to explode into plastic shrapnel.

  
  


"Oops!" said Jazz, currently without her armor on, and using her permanently installed small claws at the ends of her fingertips to hang on the wall of the small medical bay. Her weight was slowly dragging her down the wall, leaving a set of grooves into the wall, and was responsible for the sound Alia had heard. Kicking off the wall with now-practiced ease she landed lightly on the floor, looking apologetic.

  
  


Bebop, also without armor, was running over to Alia, glaring at Jazz with an exasperated expression. "I'm really sorry about that," he quickly apologized, "I keep telling her not to rebound off the door." Bebop reached down and delivered Alia the helmet, who took it in surprise. Now that she was in the room, she looked around in surprise. A small 'overflow' triage ward, two of the beds were taken up by apparently empty suits of armor, mounted with claws similar to those Alia noted on the hands of each Reploid in front of her. An array of diagnostic equipment floated overhead, apparently scanning the suits. Alia also noted with amusement a small array of recreational equipment, mainly foam football and baseball sets, with a few frisbees and also a set of spaced-grooves in the walls.

  
  


Jazz apologized, "I will try and be more careful about the door. No one visits over here anyway unless there's a battle, and we've been pretty much in the medical bay for the last few months. You'd be literally tearing up the walls, too." Jazz pointed at the armor and explained, "Right now we're making sure they didn't do anything to our combat systems with all the tests."

  
  


Alia suddenly connected the events, "Oh! You're those Reploids they found a few months back." The two nodded in agreement. Alia's eyes narrowed, "So, you actually know you're way around here, then? I'm looking for the trainee quarters."

  
  


Bebop snorted, "I don't think Dr. Cain knows his way around the entire complex. Still, we're heading over there in a few more minutes anyway, so we can take you with us. Which Unit are you planning on joining? I don't see any insignia, so I guess you're in training, like us."

  
  


Alia nodded, and explained, "I was originally designed as a surveying Reploid for large areas of wilderness, so probably the Ninth. With these little guys," Aila sent a mental command and four small drones were released from the shoulder areas of her armor, "I can get a really good range. They're mobile sensor platforms, not really heavily armed, but I can see everything." Alia laughed nervously, "I'm not really built towards war, so there's a limit to the modifications they could do, but I always wanted to join the Hunters. With the new more information-based warfare, I thought I had a chance, if I can survive basic training." Alia looked at the heavy equipment and armor on the tables in appreciation, "That way outguns my little lightning gun."

  
  


Jazz reassured her, "Actually, we're looking at the Ninth too, and if it makes you feel better, we're a bit worried. That Unit rarely gets called upon for shear raw firepower, so they'd probably like something who can watch every approach to a base from one position." Alia smiled

  
  


Bebop remarked, "Not to mention, that when it comes to heavy firepower, there are several former Repliforce members in our training group. We're as outgunned as you are."

  
  


Jazz corrected, "More so, probably. We're used to taking care of enemies with heavy firepower, and when there are bigger guns, we probably can't do a lot. Heck, since we've been on the base, we probably think we know what to expect in the introduction scenario tomorrow, and knowing Zero, we're going to be completely floored."

  
  


Alia grinned, she liked these two. They were refreshingly open. Most trainees tended to guard everything about them so that they could show their specialty powers and win lots of points in the eyes of the referees. Alia was feeling ostracized, paradoxically, due to her openness, since her special abilities pretty much relied in everyone taking advantage of them, not just her. She quickly put on her helmet, one more resembling a headset than usual, and picked up a frisbee, "Here, catch." 

  
  


Jazz bounced over and caught it. "Hmm, a decent throwing arm. I think I like her, Bebop. I've gotten so used to your corkscrews..." Bebop muttered under his breath. Of all the luck for a new opponent to show up when it was his turn to watch the diagnostic. 

  
  


After a few minutes of frisbee sports that would be impossible at human level strength or agility, the diagnostics beeped merrily. To Bebop and Jazz's minor surprise, the medical staff had actually resisted the urge of scientists everywhere in the common situation know as the "what happens if I do this?' phenomena. The two quickly warped it over their bodies, and, Alia following, braved the Labyrinth that was Headquarters.

  
  


The trainee headquarters were louder than when the two Reploids had moved in a few months back. Overconfident greenhorns boasting about various powers gained from the industries they had worked on, with a few tweaks granted by Maverick Hunter engineers, mingled with the former members of Repliforce, who weren't about to put up with this sort of bravado, especially since the Repliforce members could take on an average of three normal Hunter cadets. Obviously tensions were high.

  
  


Jazz calmly ducked as a froggish looking cadet went flying through the area, "It's amazing how fast you can get used to some things," she commented, moving past a few over energized cadets who were going to have some serious hangovers when they woke up. Alia looked in surprise at one. It was her roommate, but Alia thought her roommate was off the drink... 

  
  


Bebop mentioned, "This is why the rooms are soundproofed," as they passed a rather loud argument between a few Hunters who had lost friends to Repliforce and a Repliforce soldier. Alia stopped beside her door.

  
  


Alia smiled, "Thanks. Guiding me back here is about the third good thing to happen to me today. You'll be at the meeting tomorrow, right?" The two nodded, and Alia commented, "Good to meet some nice people around here. Stop by at about 0700 and we'll hit the commissary together." Jazz and Bebop gave synchronized mock salutes (amazing what you can practice when you're busy being scanned by every device known to sentient beings). Alia chuckled and walked into her room, and closed the door behind her.

  
  


Jazz was frowning slightly, "Hmm, great frisbee player, and she thinks we're nice. I think we're losing our edge, Bebop. Used to be people saw us as weird." In response, Bebop pointed at a bizarre cross between a sea lion and an elephant that was their next door neighbor. Jazz laughed merrily, "Good point."

  
  


The next morning was fairly stormy, but inside Headquarters, one couldn't tell. Even Alia's sensors couldn't detect weather conditions without a nearby television tuned to the weather report in the middle of the fortress. Especially since the Headquarters was getting another upgrade to frankly insane levels of defense as Repliforce heavy military equipment became available to the formerly quick response force Hunters. 

  
  


Quickly getting the top-notch cuisine at the commissary, the three managed to find a relatively quiet table. Jazz and Bebop explained a little about their history, especially there rather elaborate looking armor. Alia nodded, "I've heard a little work's been done on figuring out the data systems Dr. Light used. It's something that always struck me as interesting, since you could use data downloads to keep Reploids up to date once they were initially constructed. I mean, I'm only about a year old, but I'm suppose to be able to commune with nature in my old job, but they were always bombarding me with data downloads so I could put the newest little feature on my drones. You know, even with replication technology, field striping hover-units in the Amazon stinks." 

  
  


Jazz nodded in complete understanding. Keeping her missiles homing ability intact through ever-improving Electric Warfare systems meant pouring over the science journals. Of course, Alia was forced to it more by her superiors desire to have the best of the best. 

  
  


As breakfast was finished with minor small talk and jokes about various public figures in the Reploid and human communities. Soon, a chime came over the P.A. system, followed by a voice, "All prospective Ninth Unit members, please report to the Main Auditorium," there was a slight pause, before the voice said as if suddenly remembered, "Oh, right, newbies! It's two levels down and about half a kilometer north from the commissary guys," the voice said in a chiding tone, as if they should have memorized Headquarters by now in a few days.

  
  


"I hope that wasn't our unit commander," remarked Alia, "Shouldn't we head off?" she asked the two Reploids, sitting lazily across from her.

  
  


Jazz explained, "We've seen a few classes come through here. Give it a moment." With a sound like the Concorde taking off, about half the people in the Commissary ignited dash thrusters and started scooting off. The old hands were sitting down, out of the way. Other new cadets desperately dashed or jumped out of the way of the stampeding mass, each struggling to be first. Jazz nodded, and then said, "And now we'll take the elevators that are a little south of here, but they're faster than the stairs and connect to a moving walkway. Dash thrusters don't last forever, and half of those hunters are probably going to drain their fuel supply halfway to the Auditorium." Alia laughed at the image of a marauding band of Hunters coming to a sudden stop and falling over. Quickly dealing with their dishes, the trio walked off.

  
  


They weren't the first ones in the auditorium as they jogged in, but Alia noticed they had beaten almost everyone in the dining area, without having to use their dash systems. Though Jazz and Bebop had hovered along the moving walkway as they were still running checks on their systems. Alia's response was to show off the light defensive lasers installed in her drones, giving mildly painful zaps to the other Reploids. Somehow, it had degenerated into a running game of tag through the halls. Bebop had explained it simply, "Felinoids know how to have fun." Alia decided not to voice her addition of 'constantly and always without regard to the situation' to Bebop's phrase. 

  
  


The Auditorium filled up quickly over the next few minutes, most of the dining room hunters looking a bit battered. Once the room had almost fifty cadets in it, the lights dimmed and an impressive looking Reploid, fairly large and broad, with a primarily black color scheme walked out on the screen.

  
  


"Greetings, my name is Commander Signas, and I'm in charge of guiding new recruits for the basic process. Unfortunately, Commander Lancer of the Ninth Unit is on assignment in South America, and so I'll also be in charge of taking you through the rest of the audition process." 

  
  


A map was displayed in midair, highlighting mainly forested or mountainous ranges. Signas explained, "The Ninth unit was designed as a 'Ranger' style unit, mainly for difficult terrain areas where it's difficult to move in heavy weapons. Due to the fact most Reploids who work in these sparsely populated regions have little contact with other individuals, very few tend to go Maverick due to circumstances of human prejudice. That said, most Reploids who work in mountainous or forested regions typically have qualities that can be converted to military applications, so most Mavericks the 9th is assigned after tend to be berserkers. Thus, the Ninth is one of our smaller units, kited out more for destroying targets rather than capturing them. It calls for a rather specialized sort of Reploid as well, one who can operate with little support besides their teammates. The only ones who will see you as heroes are probably your fellow Hunters, as our actions don't get a lot of press. That said, the Ninth is the main unit providing coverage for almost a quarter of the Earth's landmass. If you're lucky, you may get selected into this group," finished Signas grimly. 

The reploids in the audience knew the statistics. The Ninth wasn't the most prestigious unit, mainly because during major Uprisings, there skills made them useful towards scouting, rather than storming fortresses, or containment of problems, rather than straight up combat with large groups of Mavericks. During 'peacetime', with Mavericks acting in a more terrorist-style manner, the Ninth was invaluable, second only to Unit 00 in quick in-and-out extractions of Mavericks, not to mention the ability to ferret out bases of Mavericks. It was a unit that most of the praise came from other professionals, as opposed to the elite ninjas of 00 or the main-line units like X's own 17th elite, who were the apple of the public's eye.

  
  


Still, Bebop came to be with Jazz, and Jazz saw it as the ultimate use of her abilities. She, and Bebop for that matter, were fast, quick, and maneuverable, designed to fight in one-on-one situations, and the Ninth gave them the best chance to do that, and with the recent upgrade, they could hear a Maverick's fusion reactor from a few hundred feet on a quiet day. Alia was there because she would be deployed to terrain she was familiar with, and the role of nature's guardian was one she was familiar with. Most of the other reploids had similar reasons, of more private natures or not. 

  
  


Signas smiled, "Remember, the Ninth's application process is similar to most other Units. Failure here simply means you may not be ready for this Unit's particular style, and the Commanding Officer's from each unit tend to watch cadet's scores, and grab people for their own Units if it fits their own personal style, so do your best, even if you're caught off-guard in the environment, and you may do better than you expect."

  
  


The hologram switched to an image of Tokyo, and most reploids took a moment to figure out why it looked wrong. Then they caught it. Maverick Hunter Headquarters was much smaller and less fortified, and several of the newer pieces of skyline were missing. Signas smiled, "Obviously, if you wanted to hear me talk, you'd have joined the press corps. You're here to fight for peace, and you're going to get your first chance now. This simulation is based upon Sigma's initial attack seven years ago, which, if you might recall, was disrupted by X. The Mavericks then scattered to various locations around the city to gather resources and initiate plans to destroy the people living within the city. We've made a few modifications." 

  
  


A purple dot, in the shape of Death Rogumer, Sigma's old airship, appeared in the middle of Tokyo Park Signas explained, "Sigma's troops are currently on board the airship Sigma stole from our Headquarters, and has taken the Park, due to its relatively central location and large visibility radius, as the launching point for his attack against humanity. He's releasing drones, primarily, to attack the city, which the Rogumer has an amazingly large supply. We'll be splitting you into three teams." Three dots appeared around the park. One towards the city core had an alpha, one leading out towards the waterfront had a beta, and the dot set on the main access highway into the city, which ran near the park, had a gamma.

  
  


Signas clarified, "Team alpha's job is pure defensive, at least until the other teams complete their initial objectives. Alpha has to stonewall Sigma's troops so they can't leave the park and enter the core of the city, which is still evacuating. If Sigma's attack force gets among the buildings, estimated casualties are in the tens of thousands. Team beta's job is to drive in from the waterfront, and ensure the security of the military equipment in Tokyo harbor. Appropriate what you can, lockdown the rest. Beta will then start the main drive into the park, clearing Sigma's troops out of the industrial region so they can't gather supplies. Gamma will be the largest group, and is in charge of ensuring evacuation of the city. When you leave the room, assistants will direct you to our primary simulator room for this engagement, and give you your team assignments. Good luck," Signas finished. Mild applause broke out as Signas walked off stage. The reploids quickly began filing out of the auditorium, receiving small slips of paper with a letter and directions on them. The teams would be entering different simulators, linked together. Impressive as the illusion of reality the simulators were able to provide was, the simulators were too small to fit in fifty separate reploid into a single one.

  
  


Alia, Jazz, and Bebop were surprised to find themselves on Gamma. Alia complained, "I'm not that good in a standup fight, really. I mean, you've seen the tapes made of that day, right? I'd be better suited to rooting out opposition on the docks." Jazz and Bebop agreed, though several of the hunters sniffed at the apparent cowardice. 

  
  


A huge reploid, probably seven or eight feet to most reploids being in between five or six feet, and covered in slabs of the most advanced alloys, with a beam saber placed across his back and several obvious weapon ports on his chest and shoulders, noticed the conversation. He was a vaguely lupine model, claws visible on his hands and wolf ears and an elongated nose and mouth said, "I've seen this basic simulation before. You don't want to be on the docks, they're a death trap." The reploid held his hand out, which, as Jazz watched, swallowed her hand in its massive embrace, though the war machine was careful not to cut her, "I was a Lieutenant in Repliforce previously. My name's Laser Wolf." He rolled in eyes in response as the trio snickered, "Were all the technicians drunk when they came up with reploid naming conventions?" he asked in exasperation, "You don't know how much grief I get."

  
  


Alia countered, "They're Jazz and Bebop." The reploid signaled defeat in the silly-name department as Alia continued, "My name's Alia. Why's the dock portion a deathtrap? I mean, I don't think I've ever been sneaked up on by anything." 

  
  


The former, and perhaps, future soldier explained, "The computer typically assigns four of the eight Maverick Generals to that location, since Sigma was busy preparing to build his fortress. Team beta has the smallest set of forces. Besides, you're going to feel crippled in this simulation. Wait when we get in and you'll see," rumbled the cadet mysteriously. 

  
  


Everyone got in, and as the door closed, the lights were cut off in the room, which was effectively a giant cube, several thousand square feet wide. The hunters could still see, barely, using infrared systems. Signas's voice, probably pre-recorded, since each group was starting at the same time, said, "Greetings gamma team. Your mission is to keep open the highway, ensure a smooth evacuation, and then proceed to the airship. However, due to the relatively obsolete nature of the opposition in this scenario, auxiliary systems beyond standard reploids, such as remote weapon platforms are not allowed. Only built-in weapons systems are allowed, and only up to level-3 charge. No thruster systems beyond dash thrusters are allowed. Upon receipt of system transponder codes from all units to such effect, the exercise will begin." 

  
  


"He just blinded me!" said Alia indignantly. Sensors were practically her life, and she needed her drones to get full use of her sensors.

  
  


A Hunter called out of the crowd to various chuckles from a clump around him, "Don't worry, I'll lead you anywhere you want to go-OWW!" finished the Hunter.

  
  


"Sorry," said Bebop innocently, "I haven't had a chance to use this armor a lot, and the claws slipped." Jazz gave a thumbs-up. 

  
  


"Impressive," said Wolf, "Except will you two be all right? Those are thruster packs on your back, so you're grounded, correct?"

  
  


Jazz said brashly, "Don't worry about it. We're in a precision shooting match here. Keep the drones away from the civilians. We shouldn't need a lot of mobility through that portion."

  
  


"I hope you're correct, Jazz," said Wolf gravely, "Overconfidence in battle can be quite a damning thing."

  
  


The hunter from earlier, who evidently hadn't learned his lesson, said, "Oh, Mr. Maverick talks about overconfidence when he tried to take on the Hunters earl-OWWW!" the unfortunate braggart yelled again.

  
  


"Sorry, I was trying to tap Jazz on the back to tell her a joke, and you have to tap her pretty hard through the battle armor. Didn't mean to clout you," said Alia innocently.

  
  


"Why I ought to.." what he should have done remained forever a mystery, as Signas's voice came back on.

  
  


"Gamma cadets, we have received confirmation from your transponders that systems in excess of exercise specifications have been deactivated. Relax, this isn't a common occurrence in our training, we just had to put you on a level playing field. Simulation begins in 3, 2, 1.. go!" 

  
  


The simulator cube loaded up, giving an accurate depiction of dusk on one fateful day so long ago. June 4, the beginning of Mavericks moving from a violent protest for Reploid rights to a true threat to everything on the planet, when the infected Hunters started their reign of terror. The Gamma group found themselves beside a large, multi-lane highway. An on-ramp started slightly behind them. Buildings could be seen in the distance, but the highway was surrounded by green space. No one wanted to live next to a noisy highway, and technically, the portion under this overpass was part of Tokyo Park. In the distance, the purple lines of the Death Rogumer could be seen. Tiny dots separated from the airship as drones were launched to ransack the city. Cars flowing into the city stopped, and traffic outbound was picking up

  
  


A small, red and green Hunter, who resembled a feline far more than Bebop or Jazz, and the same voice as the heckler from earlier, said, "All right! Time to kick booty!" The hunter leaped forward, but was held back by Wolf.

  
  


"Hold it. Our mission isn't to attack the Rogumer. We have to ensure the safety of the humans," said the officer wisely. 

  
  


The cat cadet sighed, "Hmm, they must have wiped your mind when they got you into the Hunters," Wolf growled, but said nothing as the cadet continued, "Taking out the true Mavericks, not some drones, are the big point measures, and that airship is the biggest point value of all. You can stay here and be left behind, or come with me! You never win a war by playing on defense! X did it, and we should be able too with a lot more of us! Charge!" Of the group of twenty-five hunters, twenty were eager to join the cat and armed with a testosterone-inducing array of weapons, thoughts of mission came second to getting to blow up some Mavericks.

  
  


Alia, Bebop, and Jazz stood behind, as Wolf looked at them in surprise, "Wait, you're newbies, shouldn't you be off on an authorized rampage?"

  
  


Alia said, "Gee, should we listen to a person who was in the sister organization to the Hunters, and probably has experience if he's a Lieutenant," Wolf nodded, and Alia continued, "Or go off on a straight charge with no tactics, and no knowledge of what we face? I wouldn't call that a tactically brilliant maneuver."

  
  


Jazz sniffed, "I'm sorry to actually share a design basis with that loser." 

  
  


Bebop nodded his agreement, before asking the career soldier in front of him, "What would Repliforce do in this situation?" 

  
  


Wolf thought for a moment, "Well, with HQ being half-trashed by Sigma following his initial outbreak, we can't get the kind of data support I'd like. Probably a good idea is to head to the last on-ramp before the park, and watch to see if anyone attacks."

  
  


Alia's eyes were glowing faintly as she shifted spectrum and listened to a massive list of receivers, "Well, comparing this with the map I saw earlier of the park, we're right near the initial on-ramp, except there are still people escaping from above the park?"

  
  


Bebop said, "Cat-boy should be able to deal with the first wave, assuming he knows how to handle a blaster. The first thing is to wait and make sure traffic moves smoothly, right?" Wolf nodded agreement, and the reploids spread out to direct traffic onto the highway, though keeping a nervous eye towards the Rogumer.

  
  


Neither group had long to wait. A set of nasty looking helicopter drones, armed with large spiked half-circles on their bottom started to appear towards them, backed up by a Bee Blader. The first group of Hunter cadets went for the big target first as it began to attack the cars, and the Crushers were mainly ignored, along with a few pieces of the second wave. This led to an adjustment in attack profiles, so one medium-sized unit, like a megamech, got sent with a swarm of small Bee Bombers or Ball de Voux walkers. As the group ripped their way further, most got left behind, each claiming a tiny portion of a kill a small number could have distracted while the others cleaned up the small fry.

  
  


Signas, looking on, groaned, "Simulation Sigma is going to cream them when they get into heavier areas. If they can't pick different targets, massed fire will pick them off once the rest of the people clear the area and Sigma can concentrate on the opposition."

  
  


Alia supported Signas's conclusions with her own groan, "Those idiots are dodging the big problem!" Slightly beyond a clear view still, the others looked at Alia, and she explained, "Crushers. They're used for demolition work, but Sigma stole some, and used them to shred the overpasses, leaving the humans in the city where they could be attacked. They can smash through a bridge structure in a little under thirty seconds. Luckily, if these are like the ones Sigma used, they're lightly armored." The electronic warfare expert focused on one with her sensors, "They're going to start be among the traffic shortly. There wasn't a lot in the middle of the park, and once Death Rogumer appeared, I think most people would detour around. Also, aim for the bottom halves. My scans indicated the fusion reactor is there, and if you blow the bottom half up, the top half goes. If you take out the top half, the bottom half explodes on the road surface," advised Alia. Jazz and Bebop pulled off a salute, and Wolf reached behind him and pulled out his beam saber.

  
  


"So, we need to head forward, and hope traffic takes care of itself here," Wolf summarized. He ignited the beam saber, his face eerily lit by blue lighting, "Let us show our referees and judges what we're made of, shall we?" The four started off, walking by the side as frantic traffic spilled the other direction. Soon, the headlights passed, and the only light were the slight crackle of three charged blaster systems and a beam saber, along with the faint puddles from fading street lights. Those lights stood as the darkness swooped down as the onslaught began.

  
  


To be continued.

  
  


Our collection of characters grow. Since many Hunters seemed to once have civilian occupations, I tried to come up for one for Alia the Spotter. I thought watchdog for a rainforest sounded like a good one, and the data probe idea came from the fact Alia seems to be able to multi-task (reconstructing armor, and on sensor-watch, and relaying information). By the way the other two things Alia was alluding to was meeting Jazz and Bebop (aww). 

  
  


Also: I wonder if I there's an award for most unnamed redshirts in a single chapter. Well, they'll survive and learn, it's a simulation. They'll probably be less nasty from now on if they get beat up a little. 

  
  


Wolf, Jazz, and Bebop have combat experience, so they're inclined to be cautious. Most Hunters probably get some weapon training time prior to their first few combat simulations, and the judges are going to rely more on things like teamwork and watching how they behave under fire. Success is good too, though.

  
  


Alia is cautious because she's under gunned compared to most hunters. With her job as some sort of game warden, I assume she's armed with some sort of taser weapon, which was amplified into a lightning gun by the Hunters.

  
  


Wolf has his beam saber and a few other attacks built in. Hopefully, that will allow our heroes to succeed against a modified Megaman X highway stage.

  
  



	8. Induction Part 2

Induction (Part 2 of 3)

  
  


by Tremor3258 

  
  


Signas was starting to bang his head in exasperation against nearby walls as he watched the current group of cadets dissolve the highway sequence into madness. The group guarding the downtown section had done well, but didn't take advantage of the one edge they had against heavily armed drone legions: intelligence. They had stood trading shots, instead of setting up traps, luring drones into breaking formation, and otherwise pitting wits against relatively simple programming. They had stopped the first few waves, but then the computer ruled Sigma launched two of his Generals to attack the group. Sting Chameleon and Boomer Kuwanger were two of the most dangerous foes, and you were going to get hurt taking them down, but the Hunter cadets had soaked up too much damage and didn't have the endurance for a fight against an actual Hunter masked as a Maverick General for the simulation. 

  
  


Launch Octopus was always ruled by the computer to be directly running the drones in the dock districts, and so they behaved a little more intelligently. Plus, Launch showed how dangerous he could be by scattering the cadets apart with a few Bee Bladers, and then energy drained or torpedoed them to death one by one. However, Signas felt better for that group, since without experience backing you up, morale is a shaky thing. A little more training would hone them down. They had actually eventually gotten back on their guard to regroup and take down the Maverick. Now the survivors were wandering towards the park, rather too cautiously from Signas's deity-eye perspective, but doing rather well.

  
  


The highway was always a mess. Technically, keeping the entire highway open was a near impossibility, and X had arrived too late, as the Crushers had already begun breaking the highway apart. The lightly armored drones should have been dealt with quickly, as the Hunters were deployed slightly earlier on June 4 than when X had arrived. Several Hunters had broken ahead in a rampage, and a small group stayed back to watch traffic and guard humans. Actually, it was pretty sensible to do, but there was no coordination between groups, and little coordination in the attacking group. Most of the group had been taken out when a group of ignored Bee Bombers had surrounded them with motion detector mines, and then a few of the launcher mechs had walked up and shelled most of them to death. The few survivors were continuing, though they were doing a better job about eliminating everything in their path. Still, casualty rates were astonishingly high, with eleven out of the original fifty Hunters left. Thus, Signas was beating his head, since most of the group had qualified well enough to perhaps one day be called Hunters after enough extra training. That meant Signas would actually have to keep working on these idiots!

  
  


"You know, Signas, that's a load bearing wall. I suggest knocking your head against something a little less necessary, like the cadets' heads," said Zero, who had walked into the simulator control room to watch the proceedings and was now watching in amusement. His Unit had a few openings, and the wilderness and stealthy Ninth Unit occasionally had some cadets that Zero liked to pick out for his elite unit. 

  
  


Signas sighed and flipped up stats on all fifty cadets, being relayed to the computers, as their processors were tied into the simulator systems, so they really felt like they were being hit, though at about half normal strength, and were taking apparent damage and seeing it as holographic overlays. The system could be overridden at any time by the cadets, and it was quite heavily guarded, since the system tied in so closely with most of the ways the a Reploid could perceive the world, and tampering with it could lead to dire consequences. Signas would have suspected the simulator system as the virus input into the Hunters but Sigma would have a better chance of walking around in public without being noticed than to crack this security. 

  
  


However, most of the displays were flashing red, and Signas's battery of instructors were going through the tedious process of debriefing the various downed cadets. Zero reached over and called up one display, of a feline based model, probably off a tiger. Zero noticed the damage received to given ratio and whistled, "Who's this guy?"

  
  


Signas noted the codes and explained, "He calls himself Ajax. Built as a tracking unit for a bounty-hunting group in India. He's an amazing shot. Took out a Bee Blader copter from beyond effective maximum range of his buster with a single level two charge. Cut into the rotor assembly, fried it, and the Bee Blader plowed into the ground at almost three hundred kilometers an hour. Still, I'm not sure about him. He's a real loner, and he encouraged the other hunters into treating it like a video game, so that's why the highway group was cut off and surrounded, they were focusing on the heavy armaments and ignoring the cloud of little stuff until they were surrounded. Unfortunately, he's good enough to have made it out of the attack. Simulation indicates he's about to drop off into the park to attack the airship. I don't suppose you'd want him? Lone wolves like him aren't the most useful in a scouting unit."

  
  


Zero teased, "Well, I don't know. The Ninth could use a little shaking up. They throw the lousiest winter holidays of anybody in the whole Headquarters. I mean, they actually guarantee unspiked eggnog! Where's the fun in that?" Signas rolled his eyes. Zero had paid enough dues to act like a jerk by anyone's count. Zero sobered a little, "Still, let's see how he deals with Vile and I might take him. How's the city doing?"

  
  


Signas checked the statistics, "Most of the city's reasonably intact. Sigma's exhausted quite a bit of his initial drone supply. He's dispatched Flame and Chill already to start collecting resources, and he may have to start Mandrill's operations soon." Zero examined the statistics and nodded, impressed. Though the damage the cadets had soaked up was incredible, but they had given out far better than they had gotten, even when one puts the inherent advantage of intelligent machinery versus dumb machinery. 

  
  


Signas continued, "In fact, except for the highway, the city's sustained almost nothing worse than cosmetic damage. The Park Bypass route, though, has been leveled. In fact, that's slowing down the second group of Hunters. A few of the last cars got stuck on the other side of one of the pits."

  
  


Zero asked, "So a bunch of humans are still in the line of fire? How are they dealing with it?" Slightly amused, Signas punched up the cameras.

  
  


"Can we do that again, Mr. Wolf-man?" asked the computer's representation of a young girl. She had just cleared the world record for a long jump by a human, courtesy of Laser Wolf's dash thrusters. The group, having dealt with the Spikies and Crushers coming at them through a fairly impressive blaze of firepower and then Jazz and Bebop using their claws to cut some crushers in half and swing the spiked portions into large concentrations of drones, was now dealing with the damage the Crushers left behind. The Crushers had overflown several convoys of cars, and shredded the roadway. They then started pounding after the cars, and several smashed in engine blocks displayed the grim, brutal power available to the hover drones. However, before the road got redecorated a carmine shade, the group had arrived. What was extremely dangerous to a car could be cleared by the cadets without even using dash thrusters. Well, Wolf had used his, due to his greater mass in order to clear it, and they easily landed on the other side, and were prepared to start ferrying people over.

  
  


Except the support structure for the road they were standing on had evidently been undermined, and only a quick leap onto the nearest support column had saved them from a several hundred meter fall. Alia had small durasteel claws she could extend to a length similar to Jazz and Bebop's in retracted form, as she had worked in the great outdoors, and claws make easy climbing. Laser Wolf had displayed the latest in wall-gripping technology with a molecular adhesive system he could turn off and on at will, and the others were a bit envious. Instead of assaulting their auditory systems with a screech as they gradually clawed down the column, Wolf could just hang there easy as please, despite the fact he weighed almost as much as Jazz, Bebop, and Alia combined. (Author's Note: I think the Gaea armor in X5 has this ability to stick without sliding. Otherwise, it's a nifty upgrade.) 

  
  


Now, Wolf was busy ferrying people over the divide, as he was really the only person big enough for the humans to get a grip on during the massive acceleration of a dash. Alia's dash thrusters had been recently installed, and she wasn't quite sure on her feet with them yet, and Bebop and Jazz's armor didn't make for a very comfortable seat. If they could have flown, it would be easy to pick them up and drop them over on the other side, but their wings had been clipped for the current purposes. Which made sense, after all, it's really easy to attack an airship if you can just hover and launch missiles into its cockpit. 

  
  


So, while Wolf played jump the effectively bottomless pit, the other three were standing around on sentry duty. They had taken out a few small walker drones, and Alia's lightning gun had proven its use against the light bee-like bombers that they kept seeing. That said, having to play defensively with the humans meant they were racking up more hits than they should, and Alia's area-effect weapon system meant she was on the front lines more than her builders had intended, and though Jazz and Bebop were tossing more than her fair share of salvaged energy capsules at her, she was getting ground down. A few more light buzzing sounds alerted Alia to another approaching wing of bombers, though the noise started to cut down thanks to the alert shots of the other cadets. The problem was that with their weapon power limited, Jazz and Bebop could only take out three or four at a time. Each homing missile or X-ray laser pulse took out a bomber in one hit, regardless of charge level, but each missile was only good for knocking down one bomber. And they were being most unsporting about lining themselves up to be fried all in a row. Once the bombers got closer, Alia dashed from hiding as she had for the past ( six? seven?) waves and morphed her arm into a cannon. Her systems had been upgraded by the Hunters from an original light taser to keep something from trying to snack on her to a weapon that could, at maximum charge, deliver a cone of lighting centered on the weapon's throat. Sadly, it's range wasn't nearly as good as plasma, and she had to close sufficiently that the motion detectors on the bombers got near her.

  
  


By this point, she knew what to expect, and dash-jumped, managing to keep her balance as she landed, over the first wave of mines. The bombers exploded even as they dropped them, as Jazz and Bebop kept firing, not charging in exchange for a high rate of fire. Alia needed to deal with the main group. She was surprised at how good she was getting at this sort of thing, as she easily dashed in short spurts. The preprogrammed attack runs were working against the bombers, as Alia reached effective range, jumped and shot her charged attack. 

  
  


A wave of yellow energy, crackling bolts shot through it, emerged from the gun. Alia was pushed backward by the recoil, not quite compensating, and barely avoided having her head blown off by a mine. As it was the shrapnel took her systems down another few notches. Meanwhile, the electricity overloaded the trigger systems for the bombers' on-board loads and most of the bees went up in one simultaneous detonation. Jazz and Bebop managed to take down most of the rest of the stragglers as Alia shot a bolt of lightning, her normal attack, at one who tried to kamikaze at her. 

  
  


Following standard behavior, she went over and looked to see if any energy capsules could be scavenged from the destroyed drones' fusion tanks. Not a very good selection, but the bees didn't have very large reactors, so much of the energy typically dissipated with the explosions. 

  
  


She staggered back over to the other cadets, who looked a little guilty at playing sniper while she ran up. Jazz said casually as she extended her claws from their usual small gripper mode out to a battle length of about dagger-size, "You know, we can take the next round, slice-and-dice." Alia shook her head. Jazz and Bebop were good, but the drones would ignore the Hunters once they caught sight of the humans, and Wolf still had five people left to ferry. At about thirty seconds per transit, that came out to another few minutes of assaults.

  
  


Still, Alia reflected, in between attacks while they were scanning the roadway, they had talked a lot. Despite Jazz's brash and gung-ho attitude, she was an amazing fount on topics, and Bebop shared her interest in reploid mechanics. Jazz was fairly knowledgeable there, but mainly since she wanted to know where to hit, or what upgrades she could get, as she wasn't interested in leaving the front lines of duty. 

  
  


The three waved an 'all-clear' to Wolf as he started dashing across with a middle-aged man with a death-grip on his neck. Alia and the other two went back to scanning with optics in zoom modes. The three gasped in horror as a Bee Blader assault helicopter, armed with drones, missiles, and a chaingun, started flying towards their section of roadway, but then it simply hovered there. Bebop was getting ready to snipe it, as his lasers had the best effective range of the three, when the Bee Blader left. Two megamechs, carrying missiles and small electro-plasma launchers. Alia grinned and made a 'go out' gesture with her hands, "Well, you wanted to take them." Bebop and Jazz groaned, and started moving forward, taking advantage of pits in the roadway for minor cover as they slunk forward, charging their systems. 

  
  


A few meters away, Bebop reached over, squeezed Jazz's hand once, and then leapt up and dashed towards the elevated highway's shoulder. In response to their simple preprogrammed directives at the obvious moving target, both twisted and target the black and green Reploid, opening up their shoulder-mounted launchers and shot a set of missiles after him in a high-low pattern. Jazz responded by quickly popping up and firing one of her missiles at each drone. With the launchers exposed, the otherwise thick armor was useless as the missiles slammed into the launch cells and shredded them, the backblast driving splinters through the tiny minds on each megamech. The two froze in position, their ability to fire or move destroyed. 

  
  


Bebop, meanwhile, shot his charged blue blast, which consisted of an energy wave from each of his arms. The lower missiles splintered under the rough caress of the energy beams. Bebop, still running to the shoulder, jumped over the guard railing and hung on for dear life to the side of the highway. The higher missiles, detecting a proximity fuse, exploded near the edge of the highway, but the explosion was blocked from hitting Bebop by the heavily reinforced concrete of the roadway. Placing his feet against the wall and igniting his dash thrusters, Bebop jumped back onto the surface, and looked at the smouldering 'mechs. "I really, really, hate those things," the Reploid remarked, brushing a few singed chips of concrete off his shoulders. Jazz nodded in agreement, a few wisps of smoke still rising from her launchers. 

  
  


The two walked back over to the set of cars the Reploids had arrived into crude fortifications. Alia gave them a thumb's up, and Laser Wolf was standing beside her, looking a bit beraggled. He had been gripped tightly about the neck while shooting forward at blinding speeds for several minutes. Wolf asked, "Well, I completed our initial mission of getting the humans out. Now what? Do we wait for orders, or go kill some holograms?"

  
  


Alia looked pale, as she was apparently looking past Jazz and Bebop. The two whirled, and didn't see anything in the area. "Look up. That Bee Blader's back." The four dove out of the way as the helicopter tore through, chain gun firing. Alia's readings continued to filter in and she gasped her realization out loud, "It's being remote piloted! It's a lot smarter than most of them." Instead of merely relying on its heavy armor, this Blader was going to use its flight maneuverability to the fullest extent. Some flight-capable Hunter in the control room was driving the copter, intent on putting a few holes into the cadets' color schemes. The smaller reloads of the group charged up and fired as it came on the next pass. Lasers, electricity, and missiles merely splashed against the armored killer's hide, taking off a layer of armor, and this time, the Blader had homing missiles of their own, knocking down the lighter reloads.

  
  


"Enough of this," muttered Wolf. He had been part of Repliforce, and it was time to show the Hunter behind the controls what exactly that meant. Wolf concentrated his energy up for a few minutes, and then the various gem-like structures on his shoulders and chest flared, and the Wolf lived up to his name by unleashing a heavy laser barrage that made Bebop feel impotent in the firepower department. Unlike Bebop's weaponry though, the laser wasn't the guide light for a high-powered particle stream, but instead sheer directed brilliance. Taking an impressive shot considering the angle and the difficulty to brace, the lasers cut into the damaged side, and ruined the launchers on that side, sending rivulets of molten armor sliding down. The Blader's body seemed to radiate fury as it spun around and dove so fast the rotors howled, chain gun spitting flames.

  
  


Wolf then reached behind him and activated his beam saber. Triggering his dash thrusters and then jumping carefully, he sliced through the rotor assembly, sending it spinning off to crash in the park below. Alia, Jazz, and Bebop watched in shock as the Blader crunched down as it collapsed onto the roadway, skidding several meters before it exploded outwards in a burst of flame, leaving a hollowed out shell of its former self. Jazz reached over and said to Bebop who was examining his weapon barrels with an envious expression, "Relax, I still like you better, I think," she teased. Bebop reached over and smacked her on the back of the helmet.

  
  


"If the comedy show is over?" Wolf asked, "This location is fast becoming indefensible. I got pretty lucky with taking out the missile launchers. I guess we can assume the signal was given when the young hellions charged ahead." The younger, well, looking anyway, reloads chuckled appropriately, and walked past the Blader's corpse.

  
  


Zero nodded at the screen, "I'm not surprised. I've seen Repliforce in action. Notice he didn't mention that incredibly perfect saber slice: that was the lucky part," Zero commented. Repliforce made ego-boosting into an art form. Zero said, "Still, they're not moving as fast as X did, but then, casualties are lower. Pity they didn't want to serve in my unit. How's Ajax doing?" Signas nodded to a technician, who punched a few buttons, shifting the screens to observe another cadet in action.

  
  


Ajax was loping along the street, and had grabbed a couple a couple hover drones and thrown them into the first wave of Road Attackers as they appeared, along with a seasoning of plasma shots, causing a firestorm of mutual destruction between the drones. Now, he neared Sigma's floating airship, hanging menacingly over the city. The shot would be difficult, but Ajax figured he could brace correctly if he was careful. Now, if was lucky, there wouldn't be any more Road Attackers, since his operations energy was at about forty percent after slugging through everything.

  
  


The young Reploid groaned as a platform started to descend from the airship. Then, the robot's eyes narrowed. That was a weak spot in defenses. "It's not an attack, it's an opportunity!" rationalized Ajax. As the platform dropped, a car started to drive off it. At the same time, Ajax dash-jumped up on to the car. The drone quickly pushed a button sending a wave of electricity through the car's surface. Ajax groaned, his energy taking another hit, down to about 34 percent, but he recovered long enough to dash-jump up into the platform. It closed around him, and Ajax barely skidded to a stop inside the darkened hanger area of the Death Rogumer.

  
  


"Well, well, what do we have here?" said a voice in amusement. The lights brightened to show Storm Eagle standing casually by a set of armed and ready Road Attacker, small plasma cannons primed for the attack. 

  
  


"I think I took the elevator to the wrong floor," muttered Ajax, charging his cannon. This was going to hurt.

  
  


"Oof!" the rest of the former Team Gamma slammed into the side of the crumpled and shredded roadway. Claws scrambled for purchase before the four could haul themselves on the relatively stable roadway surface. Apparently, the Crushers had been busy before reaching their location, since much of the highway was broken up into sections of varying heights, and the whole length was fortified. 

  
  


"Oh great, everyone be quiet, and hope your weapon is charged," muttered Jazz. A mute megamech stood in front of them. After a moment of not being jolted by electricity, the group took a few cautious steps forward. Wolf, of equal height to the weapons platform, walked over and tapped it. The Megamech dropped onto its back. Alia walked over and hit it with her fully array of sensors.

  
  


"I really don't believe this, guys," she said in an amazed tone, "but someone got really lucky when taking this out. It's basically intact except for the tiny control center." 

  
  


Wolf said, "Well, we can tell the others made it this far. Though that was one lucky shot. Still, one less fortification to blast our energy down with. Shall we go?" 

  
  


Bebop held the big guy back with one hand, with a cunning grin on his face, "Oh, no, not when we can use this!" he remarked, pulling the others in closer as he whispered a plan to them.

  
  


Signas looked at Zero in amazement, "Does that fit into the rules to do that?" he asked.

  
  


Zero shrugged, "Seems all right. Technically, that's not a special auxiliary unit there using. I think it shows innovation," commented the Hunter. For on the screen, the four, using a little basics robotics knowledge, and the fact that Alia was capable of remotely handling her drone scouts, unable to be deployed in this mission, to turn the megamech into their own personnel walking fire support. Zero added, "Of course, the brains on those old things are simple enough, any one of them could have probably handled it. I wish I'd have thought of that idea."

  
  


Supported by a person who was willing to take more careful risks about when to expose the delicate innards of the megamech, the four made much better time against the weak drones, who couldn't stand up to the firepower of one megamech, let alone 4 Hunters. Plus, it allowed them to let the drone take the heat and conserve energy, since Wolf, with his heavy armor mitigating the blows, was down to 43 percent, and he was in the best shape. 

  
  


Soon, the group reached the park, and then dove for cover as the airship's cannons opened fire. Evidently they were through playing games, and chewed the faithful megamech to shreds even as it bravely impacted a few missiles against the flying machine's armor. Alia barely withdrew her mind from contact with the machine before it was destroyed. Then, a platform came down from the mighty carrier, carrying a modified version of the old Chimera, with one of the more dangerous of all Mavericks riding inside it: Vile.

  
  


Wolf said, "I've read about this. That carrier is one of the toughest ever, with no expense spared. I heard Zero found a weak spot though." 

  
  


Jazz said confidently, "Let the people with scanning abilities see it. Still, I don't think beam sabers were common in this period, best to have it ready." Wolf nodded, putting his hands behind his back, similar to a stretching exercise. Meanwhile, the electronics Light had stuffed Bebop and Jazz's armor with came up, while Alia hit with everything they had. Jazz's smile dropped after a moment and she said, "Wolf, time for Plan B. He's jamming, somehow."

  
  


The simu-Vile crossed his arms behind his transparent, but nearly invulnerable, cockpit shield and laughed. "I saw your little run up to now, and I saw you control that megamech. No way I'm letting you get your hotshot electronics into me. As long as the Rogumer's active, you don't have a chance of piercing my jamming." 

  
  


Alia cursed, surprisingly fluently for such an easy-going person, before saying, "I'm not sure my remotes could burn through that, even with all of us. I guess we'll do this the old-fashioned way then."

  
  


Bebop nodded, and, charging up his lasers, asked, "Can we survive the old fashioned way?" No one answered, readying their cannons as Vile hunched over his controls. 

  
  


Up over their heads, Ajax was facing the fight of his life. However, Ajax quickly realized that the simulation had made a critical error when Storm Eagle had come to attack the intruder: Storm Eagle depended upon his agility for much of his strength and was built for combat at altitudes where a few drafts of air could tumble you to your doom. On a nice, solid platform, with little room to build up diving speed, Storm Eagle's effectiveness was as clipped as Zero's at a peace conference. 

  
  


Still, it was Storm Eagle's turf and pride and joy. He was the pilot of the Rogumer before and after becoming Maverick, and it was his baby. He was an eagle defending his nest, and that made him a tenacious foe. Equipped with the goodies in the Rogumer's cargo bay, Storm practically didn't have to do anything but send in the drones, with the occasional flap to direct Ajax into the path of a plasma cannon. 

  
  


Ajax meanwhile, was showing off his incredible accuracy again, not that it mattered. Every shot hit its target, usually smashing the target to scrap, and the occasional energy capsule dropped was enough to keep him working. The occasional potshot at Eagle kept him honest, and Ajax continued on his running fight through the cargo bay, looking for something that would turn the tide. As he blew a few bats up, he noticed a down checked Bee Blader concealing a door. Only the flash of his cannon had illuminated it. Ajax quickly ran over, and read the nameplate with satisfaction. "Engine room, huh? Gee, no wonder this copter is in the way. Storm Eagle's smarter than he looks, even if he'd be an easy kill without his drones. Oh, well, I'll just let myself in." Ajax released a charged plasma blast, but an energy shield was protecting the door, and the plasma energy was harmlessly absorbed by the energy. Suddenly, a squadron of Spikies came around the corner of the Bee Blader. Ajax started firing, but Spikies' spikes gave them sufficient armor to take several hits. Ajax was driven back step by step, until he ran up against the energy field, the jolt knocking him forward, luckily out of the way of a damaged Spiky that exploded against the shield, which survived the experience intact. Ajax groaned, "Great, I'm an idiot, I can't even maneuver with all these Spikies in the area."

  
  


"Agreed," said Storm Eagle, stepping around the corner, holding his turbofan blaster high, "I see you've noticed what the shield does when something hits it. Let's see if you can laugh off being blown around with slow death at your back." Only centimeters separated Ajax from the field, and he fired off his dash thrusters and kept them on as Storm Eagle's Storm Tornado tore at him. The various Spikies battered him and dropped him ever close to unconsciousness. Once he slipped, but felt reenergized right before he hit the door. Risking a look behind him, he saw the Spikies had left a few energy capsules behind. 

  
  


"You're wrong Storm, I can win this yet!" proclaimed Ajax, before opening up with his blaster. Storm was driven back a step, before Ajax shoulder slammed into the tall Maverick, sending him tumbling down. Ajax fired again and again, battered and half his systems running off backups, there's a limit to how much auto-repair can handle, but Storm's situation was far worse. Now on the defensive, Storm scurried off, flapping his wings slightly as he leapt from his position to start running. Ajax grinned. Now the real Hunt began.

  
  


The Hunter playing Vile's role grinned. Frankly, Vile's riding armor was equivalent to playing a shooter game with the god mode codes enabled. Unless you hit the weak spots at the joints just right, the armor could take a ferocious pounding no regular riding armor could hope to withstand. He hadn't even seen the need to activate Vile's circuit scrambling weapon. So intent was he on his task he didn't notice the data feed going into the simulator cut for a moment, before the lights shone green again. However, this time, the technician wasn't the primary intelligence behind Vile.

  
  


In the simulator, it was a bit less pleasant, and it looked like it would get worse. At this particular time, Jazz had found her claws could scratch the cockpit cover, but couldn't reach Vile. Then she noticed that there were some exposed wires when the shoulder joint moved, but before she could reach them, Vile picked her up with one massive ride armor hand, and tossed her into Bebop, sending them both down. Bebop stole a quick kiss from the surprised Reploid before hitting back with both lasers, aimed directly for the cockpit, but the cockpit window darkened in response, and the lasers spent themselves impotently.

  
  


Jazz yelled urgently as she let loose some missiles to keep the auditory circuits on the armor busy with the explosions, and effectively cover her words, "Listen, there's a weak spot, when he rotates the shoulder, the armor sometimes moves clear!" And then Jazz, looking a bit burned, turned to Bebop grabbed him, and practically floored him with a kiss. She then got back in a battle crouch as Vile's cockpit faded back to transparency, "By the way, that's how to steal a kiss," she murmured, before yelling, "Listen, if we can cut through his cables, then that armor will redirect your energy right to him, Alia." The two feline-Reloads jumped away from each other, ready to assault from the sides. 

  
  


Alia, a bit woozy, shook herself and nodded, and steadied her aim, as she circled to Vile's back, ready to coat the armor with electricity. If her vision wouldn't stop blurring. She estimated thanks to recharges, she had spent roughly 500 percent of her system's total available auto-repair energy, thanks to recharges, and there was a limit to what nano-reconstruction of systems could do. She knew the others were probably in as bad shape if not worse, since most of them had extremely powerful close range options, with either claws or sabers, and that meant getting in punching range.

  
  


Wolf saw Alia was ready, and sheathed his beam saber, before moving to stand directly before the armored monstrosity. He called, "Now, Vile, it's time to see how real Hunters fight." This had the desired effect of getting Vile to charge forward, according to the script of Vile's reactions. Wolf once again blazed away with his impressive light-based armament, bombarding the body of the Chimera, and causing the cockpit to fade to opacity to save Vile's optics.

  
  


Instantly, the two cats dash-leaped forward, landing on top of the armor. When Vile realized what was going on from the shifting of the balance, he lifted his arms to fling the two away. He succeeded, but not before the two had snagged open a thick bundle of hydraulic cables, stiffening the arms into immobility for a moment and pressure was rerouted. Wolf signaled Alia even as he aimed the final bits of his salvo for the openings presenting themselves. Alia released the stored charge with a thought, the energy playing over the surface. Circuits crackled and popped, and the sound of dying electronics was audible even to the dazed Bebop and Jazz, lying in some bush clumps on opposite sides of Vile's mech. Smoke started to issue from the vents in the structure as it froze into immobility.

  
  


Vile's reaction was invisible, not because of his mask, but because the cockpit was still locked in opacity, due to the failure of the electronics that normally would restore it after the glare ended. What could be heard were the thumps as Vile pounded upon the ride armor's cockpit bubble in futile rage. Wolf laughed in relief at Vile's helplessness, "Now let's see how much you like your super-strong composite armor, Vile." The three others made noises of agreement, before staggering to near the larger Reploid, who himself was finally showing exhaustion, despite the facade. Bebop figured it was something in being a leader to not show fear or fragility. He shook his ears, it sounded like Vile's thumps were getting larger, but the cockpit still looked intact, so Bebop shrugged it off

  
  


Alia asked hopefully, voice starting to slur as she fought an auto-shutdown, "So, are we done?" 

  
  


Jazz started to reply before the thumping sounds volume doubled several times in a few moments, ending with the roar of an explosion. The four stared at the immobile armor that showed no further damage before ash started to fall on them. Looking up, they saw the Rogumer had a large explosion near its engine cores at the back. Starting to slowly drop, the Rogumer began to flee the park, headed towards the mountains in the west. Bebop grinned, "I think I'll have to buy a drink to whoever did that." The others nodded.

  
  


Ajax probably would have liked to take them up yet on that offer. He had chased Storm Eagle through the complex, slamming a few shots into him here and there, as the bird panicked into flight. Storm wasn't even taking the time to activate more drones. Finally, Storm managed to collect himself to a degree, and evidently find an energy capsule or five, as the Maverick looked much refreshed when he reappeared in the middle of the cargo bay, dropping from a concealed hatch in the ceiling. Ajax hit him with a charged shot, and realized, despite the danger, he was doing quite well against a dangerous and well-trained General. True, the simulation picked a relatively easy one, but nonetheless, he was doing well. 

  
  


Ajax's self-satisfied air disappeared when Storm showed another trick of his as he coughed up a purple egg that split into four smaller birds that kamikazed themselves into Ajax. He stumbled backwards, glad he didn't have a shield behind him this time. That struck off a thought in his head, and Ajax started running back for the engine room door. Storm Eagle pursued after a moment wondering how he had gotten the advantage that easily. Still, he was able to tap the security cameras and trace Ajax back to the Bee Blader. Storm Eagle figured the Hunter was trying to break in and take down the airship. 

  
  


However, when the purple former Air Calvary member got there, he found the area apparently deserted. Soon, Eagle wandered over to inspect the shield and make sure it was intact. That was when Ajax ducked out of the Bee Blader's cockpit and opened up with plasma blasts, knocking Storm Eagle into the shield. Caught between the fire and a hot place, Eagle screamed in pain. Ajax continued firing, closing in before he slammed up against the Maverick, holding him against the shield. Storm Eagle gobbled incoherently for a few moments before he collapsed. As he did, Ajax's systems did a data scan of the now unprotected weapon systems, grabbing the weapon. Ajax turned purple as his weapon system merrily announced acquisition of the Storm Tornado. "Ha! That was a nice reward of the simulator. Time to try it out!" Standing still, Ajax unleashed the razor wind against the shield, throwing Eagle's downed body against it, and the metal and wind force pushed together before the shield gave out in a shower of blue sparks.

  
  


Ajax ran over, slammed open the door and started firing indiscriminately. Consoles went up in pretty fireworks as they overloaded. As status screens and the ever-present hum of repulsor units cut out, Ajax gave a cheer in triumph and started dashing out, ready to jump ship. As his thrusters ignited, the area around him writhed into blackness, and a skeletal hand reached out. To Ajax's credit, he started firing immediately, but a deep voice merely laughed and said, "You're in my game now, young hunter, but don't worry, you won't be alone." Blackness surrounded Ajax and overwhelmed him.

  
  


Down below, the cadets were wondering why the simulation wasn't ending. Jazz said for the fifth time, "Okay: Objectives: Rescue humans, check. Take out airship, check. Bonus objective of surviving, double check. What now?" 

  
  


Wolf theorized, "Our victory is incomplete. The Rogumer is making a controlled landing to the west." 

  
  


Bebop sighed, "I really hate to think you're right, and we have to go hike over thirty kilometers," Alia practically sobbed at the thought, and Wolf actually grimaced. He had several nasty plasma burns, and one of his dash thrusters had started to give him trouble, probably partly because of his overuse earlier, but Bebop continued relentlessly, "It'll take an hour to hike there, and then they'll probably have some traps left to go take down some more Maverick Generals? Whoever designed this program was sick."

  
  


Jazz's words were loaded with irony she would become all too aware of later, "Well, thank goodness the game designer is on our side." Well, he was for now, in the sense of who set up the situation that the scenario was based on.

  
  


The more direct creator of said scenario, one famous saber-swinging Hunter, saw a different view that 4 Hunters trudging after a downed airship. He saw a group of hunters engaging in a long, slow running battle through the streets against the might of the Rogumer. Zero looked at a clock and then shrugged, "We've got another three hours logged into the simulator, I say let them play it out. Back on Sigma's first day for the other team, we didn't get this close to taking out the airship." Signas nodded. Of course, only a few Hunters had been active in comparison to the now massive ranks. 

  
  


Meanwhile, the simulator was being reshaped by the last person the Hunters wanted in their data banks. And 'lo, Sigma did laugh as the Hunters began walking right where he wanted them to.

  
  


To be continued...

  
  


Author's note.

  
  


First of all, raise your hand if you saw Sigma as being a villain in a Megaman X story.

  
  


Hmm, Sigma in the simulator. Someone's head is going to roll for this! Hopefully not any of the good guys. Especially since the good guys with a power level capable of taking down Baldy have no idea what's going on. 

  
  


Bwhahaha. 

  
  


Well, we'll see what happens in the Third and final part of the Induction arc with who's standing and who's falling.


	9. Induction Part 3

Induction (3 of 3)

  
  


Chill Penguin, master of icy snow and windswept wastes, and one of Sigma's original Maverick Generals and a former Hunter himself, rested quietly in his control room on the icy slopes near Tokyo. Suddenly, a black void filled the room. Penguin wasn't the brightest Maverick in the world, but he immediately leapt to a wall to try and avoid the swirling void. Upon touching the wall, though, the former heavy alloys seemed to turn into mud and suck him in. Penguin froze for a critical moment while he began to struggle, and then the blackness was sucked in to him. Ajax was dropped unceremoniously from the cloud as the last few traces of blackness were absorbed into the Maverick. Ajax lolled on the ground, barely cognizant. 

  
  


Sigma's voice uttered from the portly, squat form, which surveyed itself critically. "Hmm, heavy armor, decent immobility attack. Of course, the original Penguin was perhaps the most predictable idiot I've ever seen as a Maverick. X managed to take him down with only some dash thrusters, no heart tanks, no sub tanks, barely even a warrior in body, let alone soul. Oh well, since this little piece of myself has yet to fully crack the Hunters simulators to activate any of my own bodies, it'll have to do. First, I can't remember, do cats hate ice?" Chill Sigma opened his mouth and breathed out a stream of icy air that locked the cat-bot into place. Now Ajax was truly in holiday colors, red, green, and the white-blue of the ice cloud surrounding him. Sigma kicked Ajax into a corner expertly and quickly buried the cadet in ice and snow. "That would probably be a no." Sigma shrugged. The cat had shown promise: brutality, speed, and cunning. But Sigma couldn't unleash his Virus quite yet.

  
  


Sigma had managed to slip a part of himself and his Virus into the Maverick Hunter battle computers thanks to the General and Double shortly before Repliforce had declared its search for a human-free society. The Maverick Hunters, showing their usual delightfully hair-trigger paranoid reaction, had attacked Repliforce at the first sign of possible hostilities. The most beautiful part was that Sigma had only needed to slip one Maverick into Headquarters to cause massive carnage to their support staff. Sigma himself probably should have stayed out of the area and then all of Repliforce would have ended up destroyed, rather than the tail ends integrated. Sadly, the chance to wipe out humanity had interfered with his better judgement, leading to his destruction, and the confirmation that he had been behind the recent political problems. Still, this portion of the Virus was unsure of where his main, core self was, but that was unimportant, he would succeed and be reunited with himself.

  
  


Now, he had gradually been absorbing more and more of the system into himself. He had lured a few hunters into small locked away areas and managed to infect them with a low-level version of the Maverick Virus that gradually grew up and through their systems. Now, he could begin to manipulate the primary simulator programs. Unfortunately, he couldn't introduce new players yet who weren't active in the scenario yet, and he doubted he would be able to go and find his most powerful body, the recordings of which were locked somewhere in the main computer. Still, there were many, many deactivated warriors lying in the linked simulator rooms. They lacked experience, and their weaponry wasn't as powerful as some, but X wasn't in the habit of wearing his Force Armor to the office, and most of the other Hunters power levels were similar to the cadets. Experience wasn't as necessary, as sheer brutal force would get quite a way through Headquarters before a response could be organized. Besides, Zero would be difficult, but the HQ was organized with long hallways conductive to hidden laser cannon to gun down Mavericks before people could get in the highly dangerous saber range. And it took X twenty minutes to install his Force Armor currently, or remove it. Without it, X wasn't very strong at all. While he could warp his armor shell off or on, installing the advanced systems at this point was a bit more difficult, since scientists were still working on figuring out Dr. Light's data transfer system that could install super-advanced systems in seconds. With X crippled by his pacifism and Zero crippled by his delight of knife-fighting in an environment that promised long ranges, Sigma figured he could heavily cripple the Hunters, and without X especially, the Hunters stock would plummet in the eyes of the public, especially if the Hunters went through an apparent civil war so soon after the Repliforce ugliness. Sigma had long since learned that it wasn't necessary to go and infect big guns. Minor terrorism and false clues worked far better in a paranoid environment. It was time to stir that particular pot a little more. Sigma was able to hack into a transmitter, short range, with his current lack of control, and send a message to a small cell in Tokyo. 

  
  


Zero continued to watch a long drawn-out slugging match with lots of hit-and-fade runs on either side. In the actual simulator, the remaining active members were using similar tactics to slug their way to Penguin's fortress. However, far away from any Generals to control them, the drones were light on the ground, and they were making reasonably good time as they were lured closer in to Sigma. Outside the simulator, the same was about to occur.

  
  


Signas picked up the handset next to him in the dim, quiet control room before it could ring a second time. The human and reploid technicians required all their attention to make sure permanent harm didn't come to anyone in the simulator room. That second of distraction was all it took for Sigma to scramble the readouts a bit further, and stretch his tentacles of control deeper into the computers. Signas's face would have paled if at all possible, and he handed the phone over to Zero.

  
  


"Zero, this is Dr. Cain," said the leader of headquarters abruptly, "we have a serious problem. Maverick activity has been reported fanning out from a warehouse area here in town. They're headed towards the military docks and probably planning to pick up some firepower. They operated directly under our noses, and we do NOT need this kind of press right now. The Mavericks needed to be taken out five minutes ago, and short of time travel, I'll want them taken out now, and that means unit 00. Go to it. Warping authorization had already been logged."

  
  


"Damn," Zero cursed, "I'll want a recording of this, Signas. Right now, I've got a little specialty work to do." Zero grinned. Zero was a warrior, built and bred, and there was nothing like showing off his craft. Besides, these Mavericks, in some respects, had fractions of Sigma in them, so it was like killing the bastard who had gotten Iris and him exchanging blows. He quickly checked his saber's charge and quickly warping out in a gleam of orange particles. 

  
  


Meanwhile, inside the simulator, the group were looking at a Maverick's idea of a winter wonderland. Alia had taken a look and summed it up rather succinctly, "What is it with maverick Reploids and explosives anyway?" Tiny contact explosives inside snowballs to sling around, modified bee bombers. A couple axe drones launched metallic disks full of explosives, and they were equipped with a matter generator portal that quickly brewed up additional explosives. Sharp, icy slick slopes and large pits full of spikes and energy generators meant anyone going for the general would HAVE to fight their way through the traps. The four Reploids shifted their vision back to more normal wide-range, lower zoom mode, similar to human levels but with a bit more clarity. 

  
  


Damage had built up despite self-repair systems as systems were ground down. The four could really use an overhaul. The damage could be repaired, but it would require shutting down for a few days if they relied on their auto-repair. While most of the systems were on line, they weren't running at full efficiency. The external armor had been breached, and the delicate internals couldn't be handled as easily as armor repairs. So energy was low, and the four were moving a bit slowly. Still, equipped with their kind of firepower, it was relatively simple to carve a path through the drones, when one traveled with two rather heavily armed reploids, one armed with an area effect weapon, and a reploid with a few years of actual combat experience and was practically a walking tank.

  
  


Laser Wolf casually and almost lazily leapt through the air, his saber casually cutting through an exploding disk, and on the way down the glowing plasma beam slid through one of the rabbits, ready to fire a plasma bullet. Upon hitting the ground and sending some of the snow right up to plasma, he cut the energy beam and fired off a laser from one of the lenses in his chest, igniting the chuckling axe-bot into a small crimson explosion. The former Repliforce and current cadet howled in triumph. The three others applauded, as they had been picking off the bats and bees that seemed to have been some of Sigma's character pieces from the period. 

  
  


The large installations had once housed volcanic sensors and regulators for the mighty Mount Fuji, but time had allowed more miniaturized pieces of equipment to fulfill the same function as the massive equipment sheds. Farther up the slopes, the newer, smaller sheds had been replaced. The massive buildings had remained, due to the massive expenses of construction meant taxpayers didn't want to expend the money to tear apart the heavily reinforced piping and walls.

  
  


Of course, most human soldiers armed with a decent plasma cannon could deal with the bats and Spikies and the small annoying hoverdrones. The big birds would probably give some trouble if you got hit by the disks and you weren't wearing battle armor, but still, Penguin had light defenses. The Hunters had been scattered, and Penguin was relying on the difficulty of the terrain. Without dash thrusters, it probably would have been. Still, even for people with damaged thrusters, it wasn't difficult, especially with Laser Wolf's state-of-the-art gripping technology. The others relied more on rapid jumping. Still, the giant rolling snowballs had been a bit of a surprise, sending Alia skidding back several feet before Jazz had caught her.

  
  


Bebop calmly ablated the snowballs with a few charged energy blasts. Jazz commented, "Tracking a fly from a mile, eh?"

  
  


Alia defended herself in a harsh tone, "I was looking for mavericks or drones. How was I supposed to know the ball was any different before it started drifting?" 

  
  


"Easy, Alia," commented the dark blue, green, and black Reploid as he wasted another tiny snowball throwing droid. "No harm done really, and now we know what to look for. Still, we got soft. It's been a lot easier than the highway stage, no helicopters out of nowhere, no near-invincible mavericks. We should have been expecting a surprise or two," commented Bebop.

  
  


Laser Wolf agreed, "We started to see only what was in front of us. Remember, Penguin was a Hunter, and one of Sigma's chosen. He should not be treated lightly." The four nodded as the door to the inner sanctum opened in front of them. The group ducked back as a blast of air, within spitting distance of absolute zero, shot out from the rotating doorway.

  
  


Chill Penguin's voice, laced with amusement and a touch of sarcasm, rang out into the narrow corridor, "Zero always wondered why the Mavericks decided to continue manning their control systems for various activities instead of prepping an ambush when it was obvious the Hunters were about to knock on the door. Hope you enjoy this more difficult version." 

  
  


"Clear this hallway, now!" commanded Laser Wolf in tones rivaling Penguin's heart. The four dashed out, right before Penguin slammed his way in from an ice ramp he had built on the floor. A hollow thud rang out as the irresistible force met the unmovable object of the forward gate into Penguin's sanctum. Jazz responded by sending a salvo of missiles down after the Maverick, who squawked in dismay as the explosions singed his heavy armor. Penguin belly-slid back down his corridor, but the Hunters weren't idiots enough to just stand and wait for the Maverick to hit them.

  
  


As the arctic ex-Hunter slid to a stop, the quartet opened up with the best blasts they could manage under the rules of engagement. A quick series of laser blasts flashed the ice-covered ground around the Maverick's feet to steam as Chill Penguin's defensive systems did their best to distribute the heat energy, pumping much of it into his feet. Four missiles smacked Penguin in the upper torso, starting to upset the portly bird's balance, which was finished off by a serious electrical jolt. 

  
  


Penguin was obscured by smoke and the Reploid made hacking noises as the smoke got into his intakes, dropping the efficiency of his ice-maker and fusion generator. The hacking turned to laughter as the bird started walking away from them, concentrating the armor plates on his chest to deflect the level-one energy blasts that the four laid down. Penguin slammed one hand, weak by Reploid standards but still far stronger than any human, through some ice in the corner, dragging a bedraggled Ajax up. "Repliforce cover hostage situations?" teased Penguin.

  
  


Zero did another one of his mighty slashes, cutting deeply into a buffalo-style Reploid. Formerly a cargo-hauler for a small shipping company, this bison had excellent endurance, and was proving a bit much for city defense forces or most of the rest of his unit. Zero had sent the rest of Unit 0 to contain the small outbreak while the unit's leader struck into the heart of the formation. He had them outnumbered: Zero to five. These Mavericks had little combat skill. Zero frowned even through the rush of combat. Something was amiss. Not even Mavericks were stupid enough to waste themselves in anything this futile. Zero opened his priority channel to X, who answered immediately, probably hanging on the radio line to see if any Hunters would be carried back in pieces, if at all. "X, get your fighting duds on. Something is about to go down." Zero clicked off the radio, ready to get back to work.

  
  


Alia started to dump her next charge as Jazz and Bebop lowered their weapons. Laser Wolf, on the other hand, launched a full laser volley, knocking the cadet away from Penguin. The other three looked on in shock, and Laser Wolf explained, "The simulation is integral. I can understand the coaches putting in a warning, perhaps, but telling the simulated Maverick of Repliforce it can identify me as a former member? I don't think letting that Maverick touch Ajax for any longer would be a good idea."

  
  


Chill Penguin chuckled, and the group started: the voice had changed, and the tubby penguin started to applaud, "Very, very good. I'm glad you weren't in charge. Anyone who can see what's going on in front of their face is so rare, it seems. Yes, I am a piece of Sigma left behind to bedevil and destroy you hunters after my last attempt into your networks. You'll find the simulation has evolved beyond its initial parameters. Much like this body has evolved beyond its initial simple tactics.. Still, you'd better beat Penguin, since if the simulator immobilizes you as 'killed' your anti-virus defenses shut down. It's like infecting new-build Reploids," Sigma laughed, right as the smaller, lighter three finished their charging and unleashed a barrage of plasma, missiles, and energy. 

  
  


Jazz growled in frustration, "We're fighting someone who can changes the rules to their whim? Does anyone know where the way out is?" 

  
  


Alia shook her head and answered, "Not that easy. As long as we're in the simulation parameters, the doors don't exist as far as we're concerned. And beating Penguin should probably end the simulation."

  
  


Bebop mulled the point for a moment then brightened, "Or we could cheat?" Everyone looked at him strangely. Bebop continued, gaining confidence, "Simple. Signas said violation of the mission parameters meant you were thrown out. So, let's leave. Computer, reactivate all systems!" Bebop seemed to purr for a moment as the jet intakes on his back reopened as his thrusters began charging. After a moment's hesitation the others did the same. Jazz's thrusters hummed into life, Laser Wolf's saber glowed a bit more intensely as it gained access to the techniques he had stored, and Alia's remotes were launched away. Everything blinked out for a moment, and then popped in, suddenly without definition. 

  
  


Sigma growled, "Oh, verrrry clever. It was so basic I almost didn't account for it. But then, the idea of Maverick Hunters breaking the rules is in fundamental opposition to the way the universe works around here. Pity X wouldn't be so inclined to look into grey areas occasionally, I'd have him by now." 

  
  


Bebop snorted, defending a definite family hero, " X managed to beat you despite the fact you can wire a giant body into power cores larger than X is, with armor too heavy for anything to penetrate over most of the surface. And you've had, what? 4 full-scale uprisings masterminded, and there was that soul erasure thing. Most people give up after five times of trying to do somebody in."

  
  


"Six times," muttered Sigma sullenly. He probably should have been worried about the incoming laser beams rather than rehashing old defeats, since Chill Penguin's remarkable defensive abilities relied upon Penguin being focused, and Sigma was still bound by his body. Sigma could cut off the pain receptors and such, but no one could remain calm as they looked down to see their fusion reactor beginning to erupt from within them. Sigma gave a wordless howl of agony as his systems were pushed past every physical limit as much of Chill Penguin's body was vaporized . Sigma rose from the corpse, a ghastly black vapor.

"Oh enough playing around. What's the most firepower I can access in this mission? Oh, yes, definitely an old favorite," said Sigma to himself. The black shadow reformed itself into a giant purple dog-like structure with Sigma's head in the forehead. Bebop launched himself forward with thrusters, and pitched Chill Penguin's simulated remains back after holding onto them for a moment, "Weapon copy time, boy and girls!" Bebop's color scheme changed to blue and yellow accents instead of the usual black and green around his black armor as Bebop acquired the old shotgun ice. It sprayed itself uselessly against Sigma's hull, prompting Bebop to scurry backwards. Alia got shotgun ice as well, as Laser Wolf ended up with an ice saber technique. Of course, there colors changed as well, since Dr. Cain hadn't messed with X's design to the point he left in the silly 'change color to match old enemy' part of the weapon copy. Ice however, wasn't effective against the beast before them, which was content to stay and show how futile things were. Despite there added firepower out from under the restrictions, the four didn't have the firepower for a direct assault to pierce Sigma's super-body's armor. Ajax, meanwhile, slowly defrosted.

  
  


Jazz scanned the new technique and smiled, "Shotgun ice is good for surface attacks, but check out these guys!" Jazz launched small arrowheads made out of ice from her shoulder cannons, which made small dings in Sigma's surface paint. Jazz sighed, "Oh well. The charged technique calls down a rain of icicles. Not good either."

  
  


Alia was now in her element. With multiple images and one of the best sensor arrays on two legs, Alia would be able to pick the weak spot in a piece of dead wood in the middle of the forest; from several hundred meters away. A giant roving dog was relatively easy. Alia smiled, "Well, that's surprisingly obvious: aim for the little Sigma head on his forehead, it's the sensor point." Alia dug a bit deeper and groaned, "But it could take quite a while. A kinetic attack may jostle the connections around, but otherwise, digging at the head will take forever to burn out the giant body via feedback." Jazz nodded and launched off a few of his ancient Terra bombs, before ducking as the dog began to shoot fire. Laser Wolf frowned, "Piling up hits will not be easy." 

  
  


Bebop suggested to Jazz, "What about your Terra Burst 'giga attack'?" Jazz nodded. The charged version of her Terra Burst technique, which transferred damage received into an energy beam, matched up in a similar manner to X's super-attacks, so Jazz had started to call it that, suffering from a bit of technology curve envy due to X being more in place in this time AND far more powerful. Jazz winced, and said, "That one hurts a bit, but here goes." Jazz's color scheme changed to tan accents as she launched herself forward on a pillar of energy. The trick here was to ram them, and then absorb the kinetic energy from the ram and send it at the target as well. The dog portion howled as an array of explosions burst out over it. Jazz finally became visible again as she stood hovering in front of the Sigma head, utilizing her homing missiles.

  
  


"Cats vs. dogs is a losing proposition, my friend," said Sigma lightly, batting her out of the air with a claw. Jazz slammed to the ground, and when she got herself back up, she was attacked by a giant sphere of plasma. Jazz screamed in agony as her circuits were lit with electrical fire. Her auto-repair systems tried to reroute the energy, but there was no where to reroute the energy too anymore. Jazz convulsed in midair before plummeting as if her strings had been cut.

Bebop and Alia dashed as fast as they could over, Bebop ignoring the battle, with Alia's remotes delivering tiny stings to the mechanical monster. Laser Wolf was trying to figure out how to get into beam saber range for the thing's head. "How did X blow this thing up again?" yelled the Repliforce in desperation. The others were too busy to reply. 

  
  


Alia's scanners gave a grim tale. Jazz was losing conscious, which was probably a bad idea with a sentient virus in the area. However, her systems were still responding as if the damage she had taken was real, and her fusion containment was starting to fail from the overload. Even if the damage had been read at it's true lower strength, it would be difficult to reroute, as the energy sphere had blown up most of Jazz's circuit breakers at its true quarter strength. 

  
  


There wasn't a lot of time. Jazz really needed a full-scale doctor. Alia knew some of the basics from servicing her equipment for long periods away from base, and Bebop had studied with Dr. Light. Considering that a archeobotanist had managed to duplicate Reploid design, one would think that's enough. Still, as Dr. Cain had found out, it's easy to copy something, but if you don't understand it, figuring out why it stopped working is devilishly difficult.

  
  


Bebop said urgently as Jazz's eyelids began to flicker, "Jazz, I'll need your armor codes so we can get at your circuit panels." Jazz nodded, transmitting them on a squelch of radio before she went into a 'sleep mode' to give her auto-repair a bit more energy to work with.

  
  


Alia asked frankly, "Is it really a good idea for her to start giving out access codes right now? I mean, Sigma could pop some panels off or something." 

  
  


Bebop said coldly as he started to transmit authorizations back to Jazz, "Frankly, when it comes to possible death and the one that will take half this room with when he reactor goes, I'm ready to risk it." Alia stopped chastened, and then blinked in surprise as the grey upgraded armor disappeared, flashing off to the side as a shell of its former self. Jazz's colors reverted to her old standard of brown and red secondary trim. 

  
  


Alia said excitedly, "You can remove armor enhancements via teleportation? That could be really useful. We could modify the data sets to allow easy enhancement." Alia shook herself and asked, "Wait, I'm detecting a faint Maverick reading off her..." 

  
  


Bebop nodded and explained, "She got a touch of a nasty virus a while back. I don't think it was the Maverick one. More importantly, we have a new time limit now: without the armor enhancements on, her personality will start to fragment because of her support unit. , quickly working on swinging back the chest panel. He had not warped off the whole set because the additional repair and defense systems in the armor could help keep her alive. Bebop blinked in confusion at the tangle of microcircuitry leading around the steadily warming microfusion generator. "I am so lost..."

  
  


Meanwhile Signas was looking at the controls in astonishment. Most of the technicians had moved off to active data stations following the alert, but one alert human had caught what quite a few Reploids had missed. Signas knew this was over his head. "X, this is Signas. We seem to have a serious problem in the simulators. The readings all just shut off for a moment and came back on, precisely as they went off, and no we're getting almost no changes in the environment. Normally, the environment's constantly changing, but it's stopped. Permission to run a diagnostic on all Hunter systems."

  
  


X replied doubtfully, "That's going to take an awful lot of remaining system resources. Should we shut down the simulator? I don't think we have the resources for a full scan, high alert status, and a massive holographic environment."

  
  


Signas repeated X's question for a technician, and said, "I don't know if we want to turn it off. Everything looks okay on our screens, and the fault may disappear if we stop using the simulator. This may be our only chance to track it down."

  
  


X sighed, and said, "All right. Zero will be finished soon, and it looks like the butcher's bill," X paused for a moment, shook himself, and went on, "for our side will be relatively light, for once. I'll finish up armoring, anyway, and be down in a few minutes."

  
  


Wolf had found the claws worked fairly well after they tried to crush him for doing a saber slash against the head. The beam saber had been an extremely rare device at the time of the original Uprising, and Sigma's body wasn't as well defended against sabers as other weapons, since Sigma had one of the few sabers at the time. Of course 'not as well defended as usual' for this body was in the same damage range as X took in the midst of Nova Striking. "Colleagues of mine, this really isn't working," Wolf called. He wasn't panicked: he was Repliforce. That didn't mean he wasn't very alarmed for his future well-being (as well as current). Wolf barely managed to coax a dash large enough to dodge a lightning bolt. "That's it! That stupid head comes off!" Wolf roared, jumping on a platform quickly again. 

  
  


Ajax continued to be an Ajaxisicle. 

  
  


Meanwhile, Alia was using her probes to make tiny spot welds in Jazz's circuitry, transferring everything that wasn't necessary to keep her mind on-line to keep her power source intact. Alia had the micro-lasers and sensors, while Bebop had a lot more knowledge about Reploid circuitry designs in general, and the rather specialized design that Jazz used in particular. Alia said, "You know, I've never seen a design like this. The circuitry designs are bizarre. Who does her maintenance?" 

  
  


Bebop replied, "Why do you think I know her patterns so well? That and our auto-repair systems swapped a lot of data, so I have a kind of alchemical feel to what's brewing." Alia stared, and Bebop stammered, "I did a lot of history reading when they were studying us. Anyway, if that's spot's done. Move two micrometers at a 30 degree angle from straight up from your current spot and bypass the circuit gate there back into the one you just created..."

  
  


Wolf went slamming into the wall behind them as Bebop continued to play 'back street surgeon', which rippled for a moment, turning black. Wolf dashed off before his thrusters suddenly cut off. He asked worriedly, "Alia, am I clean?" Alia looked down at Jazz for a moment, seeming a bit confused.

  
  


Bebop said, "That was the tough part, Alia. I can handle things from here. You do the virus scan. I can set my laser to a narrow enough focus to get the big components strung together." Alia nodded, and her drones stopped firing to hover around her anxiously.

  
  


"You seem to be clean, Wolfie." Laser Wolf blinked in surprise at the title, but wasn't prepared to argue the point at the current time.

  
  


Wolf, paused, ducked a passing energy sphere, and then smiled as something passed through his mind as he pointed at the wall, "Okay, Techies one and three, since two's a little out of it, what happened to that wall?" Bebop finished what he was doing as Alia mouthed, "techie" and buttoned Jazz back up, before teleporting her armor back on her. 

  
  


Bebop stared at the wall for a moment, and you could almost hear processors clicking, and then replied, "Simple. Sigma's in control right now, and since he's busy hacking the simulator so much, the program can't manipulate things properly since Sigma just messed with portions of the code like somehow fitting that giant dog in here despite the control room for Penguin being far too small."

  
  


"I had wondered about that, yes," said Wolf (Author's Note: see, they're not continuity errors, they're hacks in the program code! Right, back to work).

  
  


"Anyway," Bebop continued, "Sigma coded in near-invincibility, and even though we're not exactly S-class hunters here, we should have enough speciality firepower between your techniques, Jazz's pseudo-techniques, my special weapons, and Alia's ability to pick weak spots, let alone our standard weapons should have cut him to shreds. So, whatever the code did, meant the wall acted funny until Sigma took control and made it into a wall. Hopefully, someone noticed a distortion. A little more of that, and the simulation could break down. Any more questions, or can I go in there and see if my claws can start clipping wires?"

  
  


Laser Wolf held his hand up to pause Bebop as he extended his claws and went into a crouch. Wolf asked, "All right, so reality is determined by the Virus's concentration level, and we're only dealing with a fragment, and altering the simulator probably should attract some sort of attention if we do enough of it, so," Wolf reignited his saber, "Tell me where to cut."

  
  


Signas bowed respectfully as X, leader of the 17th unit, and practically the ideal for Reploid behavior, walked into the control room. Technicians were scurrying everywhere, and boards were constantly reporting the impossible. Things that should have crashed the simulator were being reported calmly, and then the reports were disappearing. X took in the situation with a calm gaze. Everyone knew he knew more about these sort of panic situations than anyone: the victor of the Uprisings, he who the Virus could not touch. X knew from experience what this sort of situation usually demanded: a lot of killing. Zero could accept the worth for it, but there was a good possibility plenty of fresh young innocents would have to be slaughtered now. 

  
  


"Open it up, Signas. Wherever you're getting active signals from, my authority," X commanded. The room didn't pause in its actions: things were too frantic for that as the technicians battled for control. Still, there was a hush. 

  
  


Signas figured he knew the answer, but had to say it anyway, "We have little control over the environment in there, and for a team to do any good, we'll need to put them into the system, and there's a possibility of being infected. Are you sure you want to do this?"

  
  


X nodded firmly, "Can you think of any other option?"

  
  


Signas said hesitantly, "We could simply go down and pull out the primary power conduits into the simulator. But a crash like that would lobotomize anyone connected into the system. It's mind-death."

  
  


X said, "That's your plan B. I need to put together some people from the 17th, and probably bring Zero for good measure, but thirty minutes from entering the simulator, activate plan B." Signas started to respond, and then simply gave a salute, which X returned. 

  
  


Signas turned to the room and shouted, "Okay, trace those glitches. We want to input the team as close as possible, since evidently we have some people still fighting in there." The technicians did their best to speed up from their already straining levels. Signas looked at the readouts gloomily. The glitches were coming further and further apart. Either the entity hacking the system was gaining more control, or the active people couldn't cause any more glitches. Those weren't two very promising options.

  
  


It was twenty minutes later when Ajax came to in the middle of the simulator. Ice shattered off his limbs, but enough time had passed for the shell to be breached, allowing his fusion reactor to pump enough energy to get him moving again. He looked around. The room was silent. Several bodies were stacked up, showing massive damage. He noticed the large braggart, the cute pink one, and the two near-Maverick cats from earlier. Overhead was the ugliest purple robot Ajax had ever seen. It seemed quiescent for now, but space seemed to ripple around it. The robot wasn't an empty shell, it was merely evacuated. The mighty paws rested on the ground. Ajax was a fan of X, why else join the Hunters? As such, he knew giant bosses typically had vulnerabilities in hard to reach areas like the head.

  
  


"All right then," muttered Ajax, quickly stepping on a paw and jumping. As he reached the height of the arc, he fired his storm tornado weapon straight down, launching himself up onto the head. Charging up his weapon, he noticed that the weird head in the middle of the forehead looked installed. Ajax had very few similarities with Jazz and Bebop, but he did share a healthy interest in going straight for the jugular.

  
  


Meanwhile, only thirty meters away as the Metool trots, but probably half a kilometer through corridors, X, Zero, and assorted redshirts were dealing with writhing darkness, and odd floating enemies that seemed like spirits. You killed them, and they regenerated. They resembled evil orange jelly fish. Suddenly, the scene seemed to fade for a moment. Zero stood proudly for a moment, but a snowball hit him on the cheek, nearly knocking him down. X looked around at one of the first Maverick fortresses he had stormed, and said in a loud voice, "Something's resetting the level back to normal. Let's hurry people." The team ran forward, quickly reached the ubiquitous gate.

  
  


Rushing through, X found something from his nightmares in a very unlikely place, Sigma's first 'final form'. Zero, however, figured on the simple logic that the centers for things going wrong were typically behind gates such as this, and only an idiot could mistake the Sigma head in the center of the monster's forehead for anything but trouble. Besides, Zero had put together the induction simulation, and gone over most of the records for the First Uprising. Few people get second chances at life, and Zero was inclined to make sure death didn't get a second chance at him. Zero knew Sigma when he saw it, and it was time to see if he could take out the big boss before X had managed it. Zero paused momentarily though, when he saw the small figure hanging on for dear life onto the thing's head, and the fallen figures around the room.

  
  


X said, "They slowed Sigma down. Otherwise he could have infected all our systems by now. He can't quite manage everything if he has to be tied to the simulator.

  
  


Zero ignited his saber, "Well, let's add a little to the distraction. Enough activity and Signas will be able to pinpoint where the Virus is in the files."

  
  


X, eyes burning as he saw friends lying around, and knew far more people he didn't know were lying helpless outside, jumped into the air, "Agreed!" X's systems locked into place as he pulled off his Nova Strike. X had worked on this one a bit, and gotten quite good at the aim. Now, he was dead perfect, slamming all the force of the 4th armor's ultimate single attack into the one weak spot on Sigma's body, without any of the energy spilling over onto the figure sitting on top. Not that Ajax was planning on keeping the spot any longer. X was Sigma's natural antithesis: if anything reminded the leader of Mavericks that he could electrify the skin of the head to prevent what Ajax was doing, it would be X.

  
  


The body withstood the attack, of course, but the feedback energy coursed through, tallying up damage in the simulators. If the body died, Sigma would die as well if he were attached, as the active cache for the simulators was purged. If he escaped, the Hunters could provide enough pinpointing for the technicians to isolate and wipe him from their files. He was not the true Virus, only a copy, and weaker. 

  
  


Surrounded by fire on all sides, Sigma could not fight and hack at the same time. Both were necessary for his survival, and the Hunters kept him immobilized in position. This Sigma had lost to the initial set of Light capsules. Against the Fourth, Zero, and a squad of lesser Hunters, he wouldn't have stood a chance. Even with the ability to change reality to suit his whim, a dangerous procedure, as the technicians could track such activity and have yet one more trace, he could only prolong the inevitable. Eventually, Sigma tried to escape in data form, but then it was time for Zero's own giga attack, the old Rakuhouha, and the perfect weapon of cyberspace showed its use in cutting Sigma into ribbons. With little cohesion left, which was the same thing as mental cohesion in data form, Sigma was easily trapped by Signas and deleted. A scream rent the air as the room dissolved around them, showing many downed, stasis-locked Hunters lying prone on the metal floor.

  
  


X sat down, exhausted by the battle and the work that now had to be done rebuilding, again. Zero, the battle over and done with, simply walked over to Ajax and shook his hand, "Congratulations, without you, we'd never have made it here in time." Zero suddenly blinked, and opened his radio, "Signas, don't pull the plug!" Zero checked the chronometer. They had twenty seconds left!

  
  


Signas's voice, rather amused, rang out, "Relax, we're the ones who found the file structure and wiped it. We shut the hard-shutdown off a minute ago. Oh, sorry Zero, since Sigma was in this file structure, we had to wipe most of it as well. That's why the holos shut down." Zero cursed.

  
  


X didn't even notice in amusement. Most of the cadets had been knocked unconscious. They all were possibly infected, which meant they would have to be put down like animals in their sleep. Thinking of 'like animals', X looked over. A few Hunters were beginning to go over the four in the room with scanners, prior to moving them. Bebop had definitely gotten to try and know his older brother, though both had busy schedules, Bebop getting his circuit patterns traced and X with paperwork, and X couldn't stand to think of someone else getting caught in the line of fire, but Bebop seemed reasonably intact. X sighed in relief.

  
  


Then his mind got back to 'paperwork'. The Hunters were having a bad reputation already, as they were Reploids with guns, and humanity couldn't be blamed for thinking little good came of that. The idea of Hunters being infected by their own systems would not inspire reliability. Still, Sigma had let Ajax slug on him for quite a while, apparently, so maybe this version was just sent to bedevil them.

  
  


X's world came crashing down around him as one of the Hunters said with alarm, scanner held over Jazz's body, "X! This one's seems to have a trace of the Maverick Virus!" Reflexively, the Hunter raised his arm to fire. Zero, moving fast, grabbed the Hunter's arm. Whatever relationship Jazz had with the Crimson Hunter wasn't certain, but Zero wasn't ready to see people fried down as they laid. Zero didn't like the idea of going after probable Mavericks, anyway, because that slippery slope would end with his head on the chopping block, besides the moral issues. Zero grabbed the scanner, and then quickly refocused it on the area, and the Hunter who had the scanner. 

  
  


Zero then threw the scanner after he read the results and said, "So do you. She was lying right under Sigma when he got ripped apart, and she got a light showering of deactivated nanoprobes. Besides, she's not a threat anyway. She's going to die in an hour, according to the scanner, or were you too busy?" The hunter stammered a reply, but Zero had already moved on.

X was galvanized into action, and said in a commanding tone, "Let's get them into quarantine people and take a look at what's going on." X did his best to ignore the distrustful stares at the Hunter with the scanner and the prone cadets. Some answers would have to be forthcoming over the last few minutes of battle, and there was a lot of healing to be done. That said, the first pass through fighting's pyre was over, and it was time to see who was burned and who was forged.

  
  


To be continued

  
  


Author's notes

  
  


Yea! Induction's done. Not quite how I was originally intending (it was getting too long). I probably should have made it a four parter, but that's asking a bit much. Next part will be a nice interlude as Zero and X work through Sigma's latest appearance while the rest of the cast gets some much needed R & R. After all, the first story arc is really, truly finished, as you can't be more of a Hunter than facing Sigma. Everyone's placed in 21XX, and have found a place, for the time being. Now it's time to go towards building a better one.


	10. Time for regrets, time for hopes, and...

Epilogue: Time to rebuild.

  
  


It was three days since the battle in the simulators. Lifesaver and the other doctors had been busy through much of that time merely saving the hurry cases. Most of the cadets in the simulator were up and around, and had been treated with anti-viruses as a precaution. The Hunters had found that a dormant Maverick Virus could be treated, as it remained in one, easily deleted shape. 

  
  


Zero had grabbed Ajax quickly for himself and some specialized training. Ajax's only comment on it was, "It's almost insulting how quickly Signas finished that transfer paperwork." Of course, X reflected, it wasn't as bad as Signas cackling madly, "I'm free! I'm free!" The simulator staff had been resolved of all responsibility, since the Sigma floating around the network had been installed before any of those technicians had joined, back when Middy was still running the mainframe. 

  
  


Worse yet, news had broken out about the various problems the Maverick Hunters had recently with infected Hunters. Protests were starting to ring out for the remaining Repliforce soldiers to be dismantled, or at least have their programming wiped. Some wanted all the recent recruits wiped as well, and half had already had to be destroyed due to the Virus. Luckily, many who had gone through the simulator showed no sign of infection. A few had a dormant Virus, which was treated. Still, it was unlikely that those people would ever serve in combat roles.

  
  


The other four who had fought down Sigma, prior to X's arrival, were in a precarious position. Jazz had shown traces of the Virus, and no one was quite sure what happened in between Ajax awakening and the glitch signals that let X track down Sigma's main location. It was unlikely that the quartet knew themselves, as none of the four had regained conscious, and it had been a battle for their lives for a few hours. A few mechanics were still picking small pieces of shrapnel out of Laser Wolf's frame. They were probably going to have a few holes in their memories when they woke up, if they woke up.

  
  


The Hunters, now very jumpy that their own systems had turned against them, wanted them either destroyed or out of the Hunters, just in case. Zero was an experienced enough soldier to see things more than black or white, and was a bit more lenient than most, but even he was suggesting having buster-armed guards in the room. X wasn't quite sure what was going on either. Jazz's systems were a bit hard to trace, but the Maverick Virus had shown up clearly. Either she was very strongly Maverick, or it was a false signal. 

  
  


Dr. Cain had recently turned in his retirement papers from overseeing Cain labs, sighting age issues. Cain had confided to X that he was weary of the fighting, and felt his own mistakes, starting from producing Reploids without a total understanding of Light's circuits, leading right up to the Repliforce notices that had set the two groups of supposed allies at each other's throats, and had nearly led to the destruction of the planet. A beach retirement party was being planned after the initial cleanup was done, which made sense, despite the level of readiness in the Hunter base. Getting everyone into the sunshine away from Maverick hunting would probably calm down even the most raging paranoiacs. Well, they'd probably be relieved once they heard who Dr. Cain's successor was, since on one knew who was taking over the Labs and Hunters.

  
  


Speaking of paranoiacs, thought X with amusement as Zero walked into the room. The Crimson Hunter felt responsible for not realizing what was going on earlier, as he had BEEN in the simulator room. Zero had very few failures on his list, but they tended to be large ones, which meant he tended to get to work at erasing them as soon as possible. Still, the fact that Zero had found some rather rough, 'get better NOW' cards, as Lifesaver had called them, only about a quarter in jest, would probably make the four feel better if, no when, they woke up. Zero dropped another card off on the table and asked, "Any change?"

  
  


X sighed and shook his head for a moment, looking at the rather depressing tale on the monitors. "We can tell on Alia and Laser Wolf that they're slowly inching towards consciousness, but we're not sure about the other two. The physical damage is about fixed, but who knows what could have happened to the software in there, even beyond the big problem they're facing. They're personalities could have fragmented completely. Even if not, there's probably emotional damage from the battle. Unfortunately, you know how hard it is to track certain older Reploids' circuits." Zero nodded in agreement. The medical staff HATED X and Zero's checkups, since they took about three times as long and got half as much information. Zero spent another moment looking at them before he started walking out.

  
  


"Well, I've got to get back to work. We've still got actual damage control to take care of, and all the spin-docs we have on retainer can't fix that. Call me if anything changes." Zero stomped off, barely allowing the door to open before him. Zero couldn't just stand around and let someone else do something. So, if Zero was sidelined for some reason, he usually made someone else miserable for the common good.

  
  


"I see recent events haven't changed Zero," said a sibilant voice from the air in amusement. X recognized the voice, which is why he didn't jump and start spraying the area with plasma. A distortion moved through the air above him before it resolved itself into a black bat Reploid. His wings had missile launchers placed on the ends, but otherwise he looked a great deal like a normal fruit bat, if normal fruit bats hit 6 feet high.

  
  


"Hello Lancer," X said calmly, "How was the Amazon?" The Commander of the Ninth Unit was an old acquaintance of X's, as was anyone who had managed to stay alive and intact long enough to make it up to command rank. They weren't especially close. Lancer suffered from claustrophobia, and hated indoors, even in areas as roomy as Maverick Hunter Headquarters. He did quite a bit of his commanding by remote teleconferencing and on-the-job training, typically in the mountains and national forests around Tokyo.

  
  


"The Amazon was hot and wet, and made hotter by the Maverick bases we found and destroyed, X, but nothing compared to the heat around here, or so I've heard," Lancer hissed in laughter. X chuckled, but only politely. Resolutely, Lancer continued, "In any case, I have the solution to your problems. They wanted to join the Ninth Unit, so let them?"

  
  


"Active duty? Has hanging upside down finally tipped your lid?" asked X incredulously.

  
  


"I'll ignore that," said Lancer coldly, "the Ninth operates out of the public eye. We're much like Zero's unit, stealth and speed, except we aren't equipped to fight enemies in populated areas. There is no better way to drop from the public eye than to go into the wilderness, and I've seen the tapes we salvaged from your debacle in the simulators. I definitely could use that kind of talent, especially since the Ninth is running under strength and this new batch of recruits you scraped together are probably going to resign."

  
  


"It wasn't my debacle," said X irritably. X ran the conversation through his mind again and asked, "What makes you so certain that these four won't quit?"

  
  


Lancer folded a wing and then began ticking off points from the pseudo-hand mounted at the joint, "Jazz and Bebop do not really have elsewhere to go, and never had, sadly enough. With the current stigma over them, someone who accepts them, cold-blooded as it sounds, will be accepted right back. Laser Wolf is Repliforce, and wants to regain his honor, which is probably more tainted, and Alia, though she isn't a warrior, didn't back down despite the face she soaked up more damage than any of them until the final battle. Plus, they chose to come to us. They'll be glad to see our offer still stands."

  
  


X mulled the point and quickly agreed with Lancer's reasoning. Direction would be important for recovering from such grievous injuries. X had been adrift prior to joining the Hunters, though the injury you could make a case for was lack of memory of his previous existence. Zero had fallen back into his Hunter's role almost desperately after his return from the dead, and X really couldn't see Zero doing anything else. X wished he could do almost anything else, but his reputation had grown to the point that no one else could think of taking on Sigma on their own. X held out his hand, and Lancer eagerly shook it, his smile full of fangs.

  
  


Meanwhile, Zero was back at his office and switched on the terminal at his desk, ready to see the latest report for rebuilding the simulator. Zero roared with anger with the screen came on: a full-sized profile portrait of Iris was all the screen showed. Zero ignited his saber in unthinking rage and held it over his head.

  
  


"I wouldn't do that, my angry young friend," came a voice from the screen. Zero found himself unable to move until he mentally willed the saber off. "That's much better. You may be pleased to note that this beautiful piece of artwork was finished only a few days ago. I'm sure you'd like to know where the original copy and the subject matter are, but that's for later. Consider this your reward for doing so well on that latest Maverick break. Keep up the good work, and good things will come your way." The picture of Iris wiped itself as Zero found himself able to move again. The normal desktop was displayed, with seemingly nothing amiss. Zero collapsed into the chair by his desk and stared at the screen for a long time into the night.

  
  


End Part I

  
  


Author's note.

  
  


To make up for the (13 pages when I wrote it out) long last story, here's a nice short piece to set the stage for next time. Dr. Cain's out, and the new leader hasn't been announced yet. The Hunters are facing serious bad press. (Heck, they face bad press in 6, as they seem really ineffectual for a bit, playing serious catch-up. Now imagine if everyone was still alive to complain about the various failures in 5....) 

  
  


And on a side rant, 6 is one of the most evil Mega Man games I've ever played. Too many Nightmares, not enough Mavericks running around dropping health power-ups. And the Nightmares return even if the Reploids who are supposed to hand out the power-ups don't return! There's a reason it's called the 'nightmare system' folks, and it has nothing to do with plot... I think they should have brought back the golden armor from 3 if you're going to have a cheat, as it's energy restoring abilities would really come in handy. End side rant.

  
  


Why'd I mention 6? Since I played it, I found Alia eerily similar to Commander Yammark's, both in terms of Alia's function as a game warden and her special weapon abilities (the drones). Luckily I didn't think about her accidently lighting fires, or she probably would have the Reploid equivalent of size 20 concrete overshoes by now...

  
  


Yeah, so most of the characters are distracted, and Zero may about to become a puppet to some faction. X is depressed, but I get the feeling that's the way he usually is through these uprisings. I may have to add angst to the story description line.

  
  


Well, until next time, where we should get to see a nice beach party, and Dr. Cain making a cameo, rather than just being heard over the radio!


End file.
